Paleontologists Reconstruct Forests of 56 Million Years Ago with Chilling Parallels for Our Warming Planet
The fossil record shows Wyoming forests eventually recovered, but only after the canopy stayed thin for more than 100,000 years.
5 Articles
5 Articles
Because of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it once became hot on Earth, and the forests became light and brown. Researchers warn: The parallels to the present are not to be overlooked.
Paleontologists reconstruct forests of 56 million years ago with chilling parallels for our warming planet
If you want to know how rapidly pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will affect future forest ecosystems, you have to look into the distant past. The researchers behind a new study published in Science have done just that, reconstructing the forest canopy of 56 million years ago, during a massive and abrupt emission of carbon into the atmosphere during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). For the first time, the study's authors used fossilized leaf cells to reconstruct the tree canopy of the PETM, Earth's most recent period of comparable global warming, with chilling implications for our near future.
56 million years ago, the forests on Earth became light and brown. Researchers find parallels to today's development – and warn of the consequencesWhat happens to trees when a lot of carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere in a relatively short time?This is what US scientists have now understood by means of leaf fossils. They conclude that during a hot period about 56 million years ago, heat and drought caused forests to become brighter quickly – a…
Fossils found in Wyoming reveal that, after the global warming event 56 million years ago, forests took more than 100,000 years to recover. This geological warning refutes the supposed benefit of excess carbon dioxide. Forests, home to multiple ecosystems, are severely affected by droughts and wildfires. Their recovery takes much longer than we imagine. To imagine the planet as a self-sustaining machine capable of self-regulating in a matter of …
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