Wisconsin's quaking aspens are growing much faster than in the past, and scientists think that rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere provide the explanation.
...With their white bark and fluttering leaves, quaking aspen are a dominant tree species in many forests. Thus, the Wisconsin and Minnesota scientists said trees' faster growth have both environmental and economic repercussions. Aspen are heavily used by the pulp and paper industry.
We're still looking for damages, or awfulness, or something.
But this doesn't mean unbridled growth, according to one of the authors, Donald M. Waller, a botanist at UW.
That's because aspen grow slower and consume less carbon dioxide as they grow older, Waller said. It's also unclear how insects and pathogens will respond to faster growing trees in the future.Still looking....
2 comments:
If memory serves, the optimal CO2 concentration for plant growth is somewhere on the order of 0.06%, or double the current percentage.
So more CO2 makes the trees grow faster because they have more CO2 and the the give off O2 and have a side thing of being useful to the paper industry.
Oh the horrors!
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