Advance climate change cause outbreak of plants – The Universal

The increase in temperature due to the climate change had caused a breakthrough in the emergence of the plants, very positive for them to fix more carbon, but a team of scientists has just discovered that this trend has slowed, according to an article published today in the journal Nature .

The study, which has been used as reference data of European forests in the past 30 years, notes that despite the warming continues, European forests and do not advance in spring as they did in the 80s.

He explains in an interview one of the authors of the research, Josep Penuelas, director the Global Ecology Unit of the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) and research professor of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).

So far, most scientific theories pointed to the advancement of spring caused by climate change was making the trees sprout more and more advance.

“One of the signs that climate change is acting on vegetation phenology changes the cycle Living organisms. In this case the most significant is when the leaves come out because if they appear before fix more carbon, “said Peñuelas.

The reference value since 1980 is that for every degree increase in temperature over the output leaves four days ahead which meant a lengthening of the period of fixation of carbon and therefore “the greenhouse effect caused by humans was limited.”

That amount has been used as reference models climate that calculate the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

But what researchers have found is that progress in the arrival of spring has been slowed by the lower accumulation of cold winter, or in other words:. by the warmest winter periods is also stepping up the climate change

“We have observed that Europeans are not doing trees sprout leaves as soon as expected, because they need to accumulate a certain number of cold nights to awaken the state of winter dormancy, “says the researcher.

That is,” as sufficient cold does not accumulate in winter, plants need more heat to sprout in spring, “he adds.

So, if tests show that between 1980 and 1994, for every degree temperature had climbed the spring, leaving the leaves had advanced 4 days ; between 1999 and 2013 with warmer winters, this number has slowed to 2.3 days per degree.

“If, according to mark the patterns, winter is becoming warmer, progress is slow in the premature departure leaves “said Peñuelas.

Therefore, the lower sensitivity of output leaves the gradual warming worries researchers because it reduces the potential of forests to sequester more carbon.

This study was developed by an international team of researchers from China, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland and Germany for 30 years and a thousand 245 plots network monitoring phenology forests throughout Europe.

kal