Trees in forests of the eastern states of the United States are speeding up their life cycles in response to climate change, evidence from a new study suggests.
Researchers found that of 65 different tree species in 31 eastern states nearly 80% weren’t shifting their geographic distributions to higher latitudes, as was expected by many climate change scientists.
Instead, trees are speeding up their life cycles in response to longer growing seasons and higher temperatures.
The impacts of this change on US forests is an important discovery for forest managers and will have consequences for biodiversity and carbon storage.
Read more at Duke University