Ecologists discover forests are growing faster

Ecologists discover forests are growing faster

www.physorg.com

Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study to be published the week of Feb. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a rare look at how an ecosystem is responding to climate change.

The chief culprit appears to be climate change,more specifically, the rising levels of atmospheric CO2

(visit the link for the full news article)

I have said since day one, since I heard of man made global warming, that rising CO2 levels should be producing faster vegetation growth. Now there is proof. The report say's faster than the last 225 years. That coincides with the beginning of the industrial age, so it must be part of the culprit. Will it be enough to equal out? Who knows. Over time of course. Maybe we will live on Pandora.

www.physorg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)


[edit on 2-2-2010 by timewalker]

Originally posted by timewalker
I have said since day one, since I heard of man made global warming, that rising CO2 levels should be producing faster vegetation growth.

Why would it? Carbon isn't a limiting factor to plant growth (like ever). Rising temperatures or different rainfall on the other hand might produce faster vegetation growth.

reply to post by rhinoceros
Are you familiar with photosynthesis? A combination of the three will definitely cause acceleration. Plus the article say's there is an increase of 7.8 days added to the growing season because of warmer weather. That makes four.



[edit on 2-2-2010 by timewalker]

reply to post by timewalker

And your point is? Carbon (CO2 in the formula) is not a limiting factor like say phosphorus to plant growth.

reply to post by timewalker


What forests?

Won't have any left if we keep knocking it all down.....

Mother nature will do everything she can to repair herself. She's like the human body living with the onslaught of cancer. However, in the end we will end up killing her like most cancers kill the body.

reply to post by TruthxIsxInxThexMist


Yeah it's like a bald guy............hey your hair is growing back faster than it ever has.......and then you bic the whole damn thing.

The planet is a self correcting system. Man is not going to do a damn thing to change this blue ball. Like George Carlin said, "The Earth will be fine, it's the people that will be f***ed".

He was a wise man but also very funny.

so then why all the brouhaha?

trees growing faster should help us with our carbon problems and as well as pollution.

Now they want to throw money at everything, let's see if you will even see more trees planted.

I doubt it, climate change is all about money and power.

reply to post by rhinoceros

You must be reading what I wrote wrong. I know CO2 is not a limiting factor, and that is why the plants are growing faster. More CO2 more growth. As the sun going down for 12 hours a day is a limiting factor. If you have 24 hours a day sunlight, plants will grow more vigorously. Or another example leaving the light on in a chicken coup produces more eggs.

I question on whether or not these forests have been clear cut and re grown.

If so, It would seem likely most of the trees as seedlings came from the same small bunch of trees that were picked out because they looked like healthy trees.

Could these fast growing forests be the result of artificial selection?

Originally posted by timewalker
reply to post by rhinoceros

 

You must be reading what I wrote wrong. I know CO2 is not a limiting factor, and that is why the plants are growing faster. More CO2 more growth. As the sun going down for 12 hours a day is a limiting factor. If you have 24 hours a day sunlight, plants will grow more vigorously. Or another example leaving the light on in a chicken coup produces more eggs.

You're not understanding the limiting factor concept. More CO2 does not mean more growth since CO2 wasn't the limiting factor to begin with. For further reading: Liebig's law of the minimum.

Originally posted by rhinoceros

Originally posted by timewalker
reply to post by rhinoceros

 

You must be reading what I wrote wrong. I know CO2 is not a limiting factor, and that is why the plants are growing faster. More CO2 more growth. As the sun going down for 12 hours a day is a limiting factor. If you have 24 hours a day sunlight, plants will grow more vigorously. Or another example leaving the light on in a chicken coup produces more eggs.

You're not understanding the limiting factor concept. More CO2 does not mean more growth since CO2 wasn't the limiting factor to begin with. For further reading: Liebig's law of the minimum.

Sorry bud but i dont now what kind of jibberish your posting here. I shall tell it to you the way is and them funky theories of yours really dont hold much water. CO2 does make plants grow faster. I have used it and I have seen the results. Go and have a look at some of the hydroponic kits they come with CO2 gas sometimes.. why cas it makes plants grow faster... Its used, tested and it works...
So it really does make sense that trees (being a type of plant) will grow faster with increased CO2 levels....
kx

reply to post by rhinoceros
Well don't shoot the messenger. Tell these guy's:

Parker's tree censuses have revealed that the forest is packing on weight at a much faster rate than expected. He and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute postdoctoral fellow Sean McMahon discovered that, on average, the forest is growing an additional 2 tons per acre annually. That is the equivalent of a tree with a diameter of 2 feet sprouting up over a year.

Parker and McMahon's paper focuses on the drivers of the accelerated tree growth. The chief culprit appears to be climate change, more specifically, the rising levels of atmospheric CO2, higher temperatures and longer growing seasons.

Physics.org

Originally posted by purplemer

Originally posted by rhinoceros

Originally posted by timewalker
reply to post by rhinoceros

 

You must be reading what I wrote wrong. I know CO2 is not a limiting factor, and that is why the plants are growing faster. More CO2 more growth. As the sun going down for 12 hours a day is a limiting factor. If you have 24 hours a day sunlight, plants will grow more vigorously. Or another example leaving the light on in a chicken coup produces more eggs.

You're not understanding the limiting factor concept. More CO2 does not mean more growth since CO2 wasn't the limiting factor to begin with. For further reading: Liebig's law of the minimum.

Sorry bud but i dont now what kind of jibberish your posting here. I shall tell it to you the way is and them funky theories of yours really dont hold much water. CO2 does make plants grow faster. I have used it and I have seen the results. Go and have a look at some of the hydroponic kits they come with CO2 gas sometimes.. why cas it makes plants grow faster... Its used, tested and it works...
So it really does make sense that trees (being a type of plant) will grow faster with increased CO2 levels....
kx

Increased CO2 might encourage growth in an artificial system that is fertilized heavily with for example phosphorus and nitrogen, there CO2 might really become the growth limiting factor. It's a different story in the real world where CO2 never becomes the limiting factor. Maybe if you've got some super fertile soil for a while increased CO2 might boost growth, but as the nutrients from the soil are turned into biomass they quickly become limiting factors and then increased CO2 becomes useless (is no longer the limiting factor). This is what all studies have shown and if you think about it.. it couldn't really be any other way now could it?

[edit on 2-2-2010 by rhinoceros]

reply to post by rhinoceros


Just here to say that you make the most sense.

The plant cannot grow any faster than the rate at which some vital nutrient needed for its growth is provided to it. It could have a reserve of one nutrient if another was the limiting factor.

The main problem is atmospheric CO2 being an effect rather than a cause of temperature variations (like gas in soda, etc.). And even if the trees grow faster for a bit, they'll stop if an equilibium with something else is reached as a result.

[edit on 2/2/2010 by EnlightenUp]

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Exactly. The planet will fix itself of anything we do to it. No one looks at things man has already put the planet through and what the earth has done to correct it. For a good idea of how things correct themselves look to Chernobyl, sure things were bad, they were horrible. But life is repairing what man has done to it.












I have said it before and I will say it again. Mankind is not stronger than nature.


Raist

reply to post by rhinoceros


I'm not sure I follow your logic. If more CO2 allows faster growth of the plant on the surface, why can't the roots grow faster too? And if the roots grow faster, can't they come into contact with greater volumes of soil to extract the nutrients that you say are limiting factors to growth, thereby overcoming that limitation?

Besides this sounds like old news to me, I thought that scientists studying the Earth's ancient past had already determined a correlation between higher levels of atmospheric CO2 with higher levels of biomass growth.

I don't recall if they were studying samples from the ice cores or what but they had some such data sources and had established a correlation, I'll see if I can find anything about that, I read it years ago.


[edit on 2-2-2010 by Arbitrageur]

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
so then why all the brouhaha?

trees growing faster should help us with our carbon problems and as well as pollution.

I'm trying to find a link to a study done on this possibility.

From what I remember, A university did a closed study/experiment. Yes the plants grow larger and faster but are more prone to disease. Some plants that use their natural "chemical Defense" against insects create less than needed.

I've often wondered if this was the cause or contributing factor for the Great Size of the dinosaurs as well as the later "Pleistocene megafauna" Mammals.


[edit on 2-2-2010 by SLAYER69]