August 26, 2009
Trees advance in a warming world
By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News Trees around the world are colonising new territories in response to higher temperatures. From the US west coast to northern Siberia and south-east Asia, trees are growing at higher elevations, and at higher latitudes as the climate warms. Of 166 sites studied, trees are advancing at more than half, while they are receding at just two sites. The shift is revealed by the first global analysis of treelines published in the journal Ecology Letters. However, the trees aren’t responding quite how scientists expected. Instead of advancing as summer temperatures rise, the trees’ ability to colonise new areas appears to be more dependent on whether winter temperatures warm. …
