SocraticGadfly: The attack of the 1,000-foot rising trees

June 28, 2008

The attack of the 1,000-foot rising trees

It’s no horror movie.

Instead, it’s the potentially horrible upward march of trees due to global warming.

Over the past 100 years, trees in six western Europe mountain ranges have climbed about 1,000 feet up the mountainsides.
“This is the first time it is shown that climate change has applied a significant effect on a large set of forest plant species,” said Jonathan Lenoir, a forest ecologist at AgroParisTech in France, who led the study.

But, while the strategy provides relief, it isn’t permanent. Not only is there an ultimate dead-end at the tops of mountains, the relief may not be that stable.

Read the whole story for more.

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