Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes trees to put more resource into developing root systems below ground.
Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes trees to put more resource into developing root systems below ground.
This flow of extra carbon below ground is an important, and often overlooked, way in which the natural world will respond to ongoing and future greenhouse gas emissions.
In a new study, led by the Universities of Birmingham, in the UK, and Bergen, in Norway, researchers have shown that atmospheric CO2 pumped into a mature forest at levels predicted to be the norm by 2050 will cause trees to produce more and longer roots.
The research, published in Science of the Total Environment, was carried out in the Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) facility, operated by the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR). It complements earlier research which shows the same trees will increase their rate of photosynthesis by up to a third under elevated CO2 conditions.
Read more at University of Birmingham
Photo Credit: faiknagiyev via Pixabay
