Aspens along the Highway 395 corridor just east of Yosemite’s Tioga Pass entrance. Photo by Loyd Schutte.
Researchers have come up with some interesting findings regarding Carbon Dioxide, the green gas believed to be largely responsible for global warming, it’s making the aspen trees grow like mad!
The study conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota at Morris (UMM) and published in the journal Global Change Biology, showed that elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide during the past 50 years have boosted aspen growth rates by an 50 percent.
According to the researchers the accelerated growth rates of aspen could have widespread unknown ecological consequences. Aspen is a dominant tree in mountainous and northern forested regions of North America. Aspens are considered a “foundation species,” exerting a strong influence on the plant and animal communities and dynamics of the forest ecosystems where they reside. Researchers are afraid the increased growth of the Aspens could push out and cause slower growing species of plants to become extinct.
(via Science Blog)