Canada’s boreal forest may not suffer as much as other areas on Earth from climate change. Armed with climate data as far back as 1960, scientists from Quebec and the US analysed datasets from black spruce tree rings to gather a sense of how the forest or threes respond to different weather conditions. Their findings are incredibly hopeful – that some of the forest may actually flourish in the warmer temperatures brought by climate change reported Inhabitat.
The scientist studied tree ring datasets from 26,000 black spruce trees, matching rings with the growth rates and see how the trees reacted to different weather patterns. At around the 49th parallel, the scientists founds something that intrigues them. South of the parallel, trees tends to show stress when it encountered dry and hot weather. North of the parallel, the reaction changes, the trees respond much better to warm and humid weather. The trees could prosper in the longer growing season climate change could afford them.
Lead researcher Loic D’Orangeville stated that the in general, the scientific community agrees that boreal forests are constrained by low temperatures, and they should see some advantages from global warming. In Quebec, winters are usually long and harsh. If the winter shortens due to climate change, the trees will be able to grow for longer periods of time. In warmer temperatures, trees need greater amounts of water to flourish. At this point, however, the researchers think the warmer weather could outweigh the possibility that there could be less water available.
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Image credit: Inhabitat