Scienceblogtwo

It is yet unclear what factors restrict tree growth. The development of trees appears to be constrained by cell growth rather than photosynthesis, according to new findings from an international team of scientists. The U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II provided funding for the study, which was released in the journal Science on May 12th. The study's conclusions are shocking as well. A significant amount of our present carbon dioxide emissions are currently absorbed and stored by forests. The ability of the trees to absorb carbon and delay climate change would decrease if forest expansion slows. The study also discovered that photosynthesis and tree development respond differently to various climate cues, indicating that current models of forest carbon sequestration may overestimate the capacity of forests to store atmospheric carbon....