Scientists have found that trees in cities respond to higher temperatures differently than those in forests, potentially masking climate impacts.
Scientists have found that trees in cities respond to higher temperatures differently than those in forests, potentially masking climate impacts.
It’s tricky to predict precisely what the impacts of climate change will be, given the many variables involved. To predict the impacts of a warmer world on plant life, some researchers look at urban “heat islands,” where, because of the effects of urban structures, temperatures consistently run a few degrees higher than those of the surrounding rural areas. This enables side-by-side comparisons of plant responses.
But a new study by researchers at MIT and Harvard University has found that, at least for forests, urban heat islands are a poor proxy for global warming, and this may have led researchers to underestimate the impacts of warming in some cases. The discrepancy, they found, has a lot to do with the limited genetic diversity of urban tree species.
The findings appear in the journal PNAS, in a paper by MIT postdoc Meghan Blumstein, professor of civil and environmental engineering David Des Marais, and four others.
Read more at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Image: Meghan Blumstein studied red oak genotypes across New England, concentrating on trees that were within reach in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She then collaborated with people doing research at the Harvard Forest, a research forest in rural central Massachusetts. (Credits:Image: Courtesy of the researchers)
