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Capacity of Old Trees to Respond to Environmental Change
Author(s) -
Phillips Nathan G.,
Buckley Thomas N.,
Tissue David T.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of integrative plant biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.734
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1744-7909
pISSN - 1672-9072
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7909.2008.00746.x
Subject(s) - climate change , tree (set theory) , maturity (psychological) , environmental change , period (music) , ecology , environmental science , geography , biology , political science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , law , physics , acoustics
Atmospheric carbon dioxide [CO 2 ] has increased dramatically within the current life spans of long‐lived trees and old forests. Consider that a 500‐year‐old tree in the early twenty‐first century has spent 70% of its life growing under pre‐industrial levels of [CO 2 ], which were 30% lower than current levels. Here we address the question of whether old trees have already responded to the rapid rise in [CO 2 ] occurring over the past 150 years. In spite of limited data, aging trees have been shown to possess a substantial capacity for increased net growth after a period of post‐maturity growth decline. Observations of renewed growth and physiological function in old trees have, in some instances, coincided with Industrial Age increases in key environmental resources, including [CO 2 ], suggesting the potential for continued growth in old trees as a function of continued global climate change.