For the first time, scientists have been successful in measuring the processes by which an entire forest “breathes”. A team led by Richard Wehr and Scott Saleska at the University of Arizona obtained detailed long-term measurements of the respiration and photosynthesis rates of a temperate deciduous forest during the day and the night.
The researchers discovered that the trees “exhale” less carbon dioxide during the day than previously thought, and that forest photosynthesis doesn’t decline over the course of the summer.
The results, published in the journal Nature, close a long-standing gap in our understanding of the carbon cycling between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere and could be useful in making more accurate models to predict the long-term effects of global climate change.
Click here for source (Science Daily)
Image Credit: Richard Wehr
