Trees are growing faster

A study in the United States showed that plants are growing faster than two centuries ago because of the increase in global temperature.

Global warming makes plants grow faster than two centuries ago.
Photo: flickr.com.

Livescience said, over the past 20 years, ecologist Geoffrey Parker of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, USA and postdoctoral researcher Sean McMahon of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the United States have tracked their development. Hardwood trees in many forests in the state of Maryland of this country. The trees they follow are aged 5 to 225 years.

Parker statistics show that more than 90% of trees grow at a rate of 2-4 times higher than many centuries ago. On average, the total volume of timber of the forests increases by 2 tons / hectare per year. The state of rapid development is evident in all plants and all ages.

Parker and McMahon investigated the causes that could make plants grow faster.

'We listed a number of causes and removed half of them. Retained factors include global warming, the growth of the growing season and an increase in the rate of CO ₂ in the air. All of them are consequences or causes of climate change , "Parker said.

According to the two researchers, in the past 22 years, atmospheric CO ₂ concentrations in the state of Maryland have increased by 12%, the average temperature increased by about 0.3 degrees Celsius, and the growing season is longer than 7.8 days. Therefore plants have more CO2 to perform photosynthesis and more time to gain weight. Parker and McMahon suggest that the combination of these factors makes the weight of the tree increase at a faster rate.

Understanding the impact of climate change on trees is very important, because the growth rate of plants greatly affects the types of weather, nutritional cycles of the sexes and biodiversity.