Climate change is altering the age and structure of the world’s forests, driving an increase in younger and shorter trees over the last century, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Since 1900, the world has lost more than a third of its old-growth forests.
Climate change is altering the age and structure of the world’s forests, driving an increase in younger and shorter trees over the last century, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Since 1900, the world has lost more than a third of its old-growth forests.
The changes in forest composition are the result of rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels, which are causing increased environmental stress, an uptick in carbon dioxide fertilization, and an increase in the severity and frequency of extreme events such as wildfires and droughts.
“This trend is likely to continue with climate warming,” Nate McDowell, an earth systems scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and lead author of the new study, said in a statement. “A future planet with fewer large, old forests will be very different than what we have grown accustomed to. Older forests often host much higher biodiversity than young forests and they store more carbon than young forests.”
Read more at Yale Environment 360
Image by Siggy Nowak from Pixabay
