Climate change linked to more flowery forests: Study

New research has shown that tropical forests may be more sensitive to climate change than previously thought. Their study relates a rise in flower production to rising greenhouse gas emissions.

By: PTI | Washington | Published: January 22, 2018 7:41 pm

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The researchers studying the rich tropical forests of Panama’s Barro Colorado Island found that climbing rates of carbon dioxide have set the stage for a multidecade increase in overall flower production. (Image Source: Florida State University)

Scientists have revealed a surprising relationship between surging atmospheric carbon dioxide and flower blooms in remote tropical forests. The researchers studying the rich tropical forests of Panama’s Barro Colorado Island found that climbing rates of carbon dioxide have set the stage for a multidecade increase in overall flower production.

“Over the past several decades, we have seen temperatures warming and carbon dioxide increasing, and our study found that this tropical forest has responded to that increase by producing more flowers,” said Stephanie Pau, from the Florida State University in the US. The findings suggest that tropical forests, which have evolved over millennia to flourish in warm, equatorial conditions, may be more sensitive to subtle climatic changes than some ecologists predicted.