Climate change is causing old trees in northern China’s permafrost forests to grow faster, likely thanks to warmer soil temperatures, according to recent research.
Climate change is causing old trees in northern China’s permafrost forests to grow faster, likely thanks to warmer soil temperatures, according to recent research. Older larch trees grew more from 2005 to 2014 than in the preceding 40 years. And the oldest trees, often 400-plus years, grew more rapidly than at any time in the past three centuries.
As E&E News points out, such behavior is unusual for older trees, whose growth rates usually slow down over time. But the research, led by scientists at Shenyang Agricultural University in China, estimates that as rising global temperatures melt the region’s frozen soil and lower the permafrost layer, the trees’ roots are able to expand and suck up more nutrients and water. The findings were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.
Read more at Yale Environment 360
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