Trees are now growing for an extra year to adapt to global warming
In an unnatural turn of events, global warming has pushed trees to change the way they grow, reveals a brand-new study. The research has been conducted by scientists based at Ohio State University who have found out that hardwoods in northwest Ohio have extended their annual growth period by a month on an average, thanks to the global heating.
What is interesting is that, the researchers compared their latest observations with detailed notes from a 19th century local farmer, who used to keep track of the growth rate of trees in his farm.
As revealed, the farmer named Thomas Mikesell not only kept track of the plants’ growth, but also of changing temperatures as well as rate of precipitation in between 1883 and 1912 in his hometown Wausen, Ohio. So, one can say that the farmer’s notes serve as the ultimate pre-warming dataset to compare with that of present day. Guess what has been discovered from that? The Earth has been warming by 1.1 degrees Celsius since the industrial revolution, more than 200 years ago.
Sources also cite that to make the study as authentic as possible, the lead author Professor Kellen Calinger-Yoak had herself travelled all the way to Wausen during springs and autums between 2010 and 2014. Her goal was to keep track of seven different species of hardwood trees. She was surprised to find that leaves stayed on trees almost 15 percent longer than they used to be in Mikesell’s time.
According to her and the team, an entire month’s addition to the growing period is a huge deal. It also implies how plant species have started to respond to warmer climates and have even found their own unique ways of adaptation.
In case you are wondering the implications of the study, it revealed how different kinds of trees are coping against the ongoing climate crisis and will continue to do so. But one thing is for sure, the longer their growth season, the more carbon dioxide they absorb from the atmosphere, thus once again helping fellow mankind in tackling climate change. However, the scientists also fear that higher and fluctuating temperatures also mean that trees are being stressed in unknown ways, thus reducing their lifespan.