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Article: Studies show forests absorb less Co2 than expected
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- Article date:
- July 1, 1998
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CopyrightCopyright American Society of Agricultural Engineers Jul 1998. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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New findings throw cold water on the view that the world's forests will dampen global warming by soaking up rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO^sub 2^) in the atmosphere. According to a report this spring at the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems Conference in Barcelona, Spain, trees quickly lose their thirst for CO^sub 2^ as they mature. If these results hold up in larger studies, they could force climate modelers to reassess how fast atmospheric CO^sub 2^ will accumulate and how high global temperatures might rise.
Stephan Hattenschwiler of the University of Basel, Switzerland, presented data on how trees grown to maturity respond to elevated CO^sub 2^. His group studied tree rings ...