Australia’s forests are losing trees more rapidly as the climate warms, a new study examining decades of data said Tuesday, warning the trend was likely a “widespread phenomenon”. The research used forest inventory data from 2,700 plots across the country, ranging from cool moist forests to dry savanna. It excluded areas affected by logging, clearance or fires to examine how “background tree mortality” has changed in recent decades. “What we found is that the mortality rate has consistently increased over time, in all of the different forest types,” said Belinda Medlyn, a professor at Western Sydney University’s Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment. “And this increase is very likely caused by the increase in temperature,” she told AFP. The world has warmed by an average of nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era. Most of this warming has occurred in the last 50 years. The rate at which trees die off in a forest can vary in response to different types of disturbances, or as forests grow thicker and there is greater competition for resources.
continue reading
