We pumped extra CO₂ into an oak forest and discovered trees will be ‘woodier’ in future
By Rob MacKenzie, Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Birmingham
Richard Norby, Research Professor, University of Tennessee Knoxville, and Honorary Professor, Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, University of Birmingham
Oak trees accumulate more wood when there is more carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere. That’s the key finding from our new study, carried out in a long-established forest in Staffordshire, England, that we have turned into a huge field experiment by injecting with extra CO₂. 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%.
In some ways, this result is reassuring. We know that more CO₂…
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Tuesday, August 13, 2024