News: global warming reducing carbon sequesting of forests

[dracodraconis]

An international study has discovered that warmer autumn temperatures are reducing the ability of Northern forests to sequester carbon dioxide. Normally, carbon dioxide is sequestered in the spring and released in the fall, but warmer fall temperatures have increased the fall carbon dioxide release without an equivalent rate of increase in spring sequestering. As a result, Northern forests are locked in a feedback loop with global warming in which rising global temperatures make the forests less effective in countering those rising temperatures.