Forests play an important role as “carbon sinks” by absorbing and storing CO2 emissions, but a new study finds that that droughts—expected to become more frequent with climate change—deal that climate-buffering power a blow. The findings, published this week in the journal Science, show that forests don’t recover as quickly after a drought as had been previously thought, indicating a …
Drought’s lasting impact on forests
SALT LAKE CITY, July 30, 2015 – In the virtual worlds of climate modeling, forests and other vegetation are assumed to bounce back quickly from extreme drought. But that assumption is far off the mark, according to a new study of drought impacts at forest sites worldwide. Living trees took an average of two to four years to recover and …