Futurity: Forests take up 25 to 30 percent of human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide--a strong greenhouse gas--and therefore are considered to play a crucial role in mitigating the speed and magnitude of climate change.
However, a new study that combines future climate model projections; historic tree-ring records across the entire continent of North America; and how the growth rates of trees may respond to a higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere shows that the mitigation effect of...