ETH researchers find climate change is increasing the risk of late-spring frost in areas where plants are not adapted to this kind of temperature swing, putting some forests of Europe and Asia at higher risk of damage.
Climate change is putting temperate trees in Europe and Asia at greater risk to late-spring cold snaps—which threatens ecosystems, agriculture and economies—finds new research led by the Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich, published in the journal PNAS.
Increased warming in early spring is causing leaves to emerge on trees earlier in the year. Recent estimates show this advance in leaf-out could be as much as two weeks on average through the rest of the century. Early leaf-out puts trees at greater risk of severe damage from late-spring frosts, as young leaves are more vulnerable to freezing. The new study shows that the occurrence of such latespring frosts is increasing.
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