A century of rising temperatures has extended the growing season of hardwood forests in the eastern U.S. by one month, a new study finds.
A century of rising temperatures has extended the growing season of hardwood forests in the eastern U.S. by one month, a new study finds.
Growing season lasts from the first budburst in spring until trees turn gold and crimson in the fall. As spring and fall grow warmer, trees are bearing their leaves for longer, the research shows.
For the study, scientists tracked American elm, black walnut, white oak, and four other species in northwest Ohio, comparing their data to records collected by an Ohio farmer at the turn of the last century. The farmer, Thomas Mikesell, gathered information on temperature, rainfall, and tree growth from 1883 to 1912, producing what may be the only early 20th-century record of forest growth in North America, authors said.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
Wayne National Forest in Ohio. (Photo Credit: U.S. Forest Service)
