Look out! Plants may grow better – we could have more trees! Oh, wait…
Researchers in Finland and the United Kingdom suggest that the warming Arctic climate could turn existing shrubs into trees in the coming years. The finding, presented in the journal Nature Climate Change, reveals that patches of forest can emerge across the tundra, which in turn could speed up the planet’s warming. The study was funded in part by the ECOCHANGE (‘Creating conditions for persistence of biodiversity in the face of climate change’) project, which has received a Marie Curie ‘Promoting sciences’ grant worth EUR 173 400 under the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
Led by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, the researchers focused their work on a 100 000-square-kilometre area, known as the north-western Eurasian tundra, which stretches from western Siberia to Finland. Data generated from fieldwork and satellite imaging, as well as from observations made by indigenous reindeer herders, indicated that between 8 % and 15 % of the area’s willow (Salix) and alder (Alnus) plants have, since the 1970s, grown into trees that are more than 8 metres high.
Well, thank God for that. Maybe we can help re-establish an indigenous human population while we reshape our morality?