Over a decade of data demonstrate that in a warming climate, less snowpack in New England could disrupt tree growth and carbon uptake.
Over a decade of data demonstrate that in a warming climate, less snowpack in New England could disrupt tree growth and carbon uptake.
Twelve years ago in a northern New Hampshire forest, Boston University biologist Pamela Templer and her team laid heating cables under the soil of maple and beech trees. Careful not to disrupt the roots, their goal was to test how climate change—and, particularly, less snow accumulation and hotter summers—might affect tree growth and the ability of this forest to store carbon. The section of land, located at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, became an active laboratory.
Because trees take in and use carbon dioxide to grow, they’re one of our most important natural resources for capturing planet-warming greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Since laying the cables, Templer and her colleagues have returned to the outdoor laboratory multiple times a year, watching as patches of forest mimicked climate change effects that are projected to worsen in coming decades. In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they show that warmer summer temperatures increase tree growth, but less snow on the ground slows this growth significantly—meaning that New England forests’ ability to store carbon in future climate scenarios is likely overestimated.
Read more at Boston University
Image: Each sectioned-off research area, like the one above, has 21 to 24 individual trees, with two-and-half miles of cable laid underneath the artificially heated zones. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Pam Templer/BU)
