Trees can adapt to higher global temperatures without dramatically increasing the amount of carbon dioxide released through the process of respiration, as scientists had previously thought would happen, according to a New York Times report on a study published in Nature.
Since current global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide from plant respiration is six times greater than the amount emitted by fossil fuels, though much is reabsorbed by plants and other elements of nature, the trees’ ability to adapt without contributing more carbon dioxide is a good sign for the health of the planet, according to the Times.
The study showed long-term temperature increases would cause an increase in respiration of 5 percent, more than five times less than the scientists had predicted based off modeling of short-term temperature increases.
“We’ve known that trees respond to changing temperatures over the course of a day and over the course of the seasons, but we didn’t know how well they acclimated over longer periods of time,” Kevin Griffin, a forest ecologist at Columbia University, told Science Magazine. “This really needs to be included in climate models.”
Article updated March 21 to clarify that much of the carbon dioxide released through respiration is reabsorbed by nature.
