In an article in “The Conversation,” researchers Rob MacKenzie and Richard Norby, with the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR), shared findings from a recent study published in Nature Climate Change. Their question: How will trees respond to more CO2 in the future?
Their laboratory is a forest in Staffordshire, England. Their equipment, tall pipes that infuse the air with extra CO2. Their samples, 180-year-old English oak (Quercus robur).
“After we increased CO2 levels to what will be the planetary level in the 2050s, trees took more of it from the atmosphere and their wood production increased by 10%,” MacKenzie and Norby wrote.
Several FACE (Free Air Carbon Enrichment) experiments are happening around the world in an attempt to better understand which trees are more likely to thrive in the future. You can learn more about BIFoR FACE here. And you can watch a video about the BIFoR FACE facility here, and a more recent video about BIFoR FACE experiments here.
— Kara Gebhart Uhl
… except that oak is already suffering heavily from the shift in average temperature. There are areas in Germany where oak is already no longer grown commercially. I suspect that oak won’t be able to grow in England by 2050. Remember that the current change in global climate is happening despite any increase in CO2 uptake that may happen.
Simply untrue: at least, if one is to assert that CO2 is the culprit. Certainly not temperature; oak of various species thrive from the northern to southern US. One should also note that IF manmade global warming was a thing, it would extend the growing season and range in northern regions, e.g Poland, UK, Sweden, Canada, and the Dakotas and Minnesota. Let’s not forget Russia (though I’d like to).
Plants require, and fix CO2, producing free oxygen in return.
You get a Cminus in high school biology.
Oak trees grow in Mississippi. So I expect that at least some species of oak will grow in England as the temps rise, no?
What is the most common tree in Mississippi?
Are there oak trees in Mississippi?
Tips to Identify Oak Trees | Mississippi State University …
Oak trees are the predominate tree in forests and are crucial to commercial forestry and wildlife. Mississippi is home to many oak species, 34 to be exact, each having unique characteristics.Jun 19, 2023
Oak Trees thrive in Texas and its always hot as hell here. Plants like CO2. The earth is greening up according to NASA – https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth-study-finds/
Maybe it will open up new areas to grow trees on the CITES list.