Trees Growing Faster As Planet Warms

Parker uses diameter tape or 'd-tape' to measure the trees. The tape is calibrated to convert the tree's circumference, the measurement used to determine a tree's biomass. Photo: Kirsten Bauer.

From Live Science:

Trees in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the last two centuries in response to Earth's warming climate, a new study finds.

For more than 20 years forest ecologist Geoffrey Parker, based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center outside Washington, D.C., has tracked the growth of 55 stands of mixed hardwood forest plots in Maryland.

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Evolution Coup: Study Reveals How Plants Protect Their Genes

Researchers have discovered a new pathway that plants use to protect their genes against dangerous alterations that could also allow some useful mutations to occur. (Credit: iStockphoto/Duncan Walker)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2009) — Unlike animals and humans, plants can't run and hide when exposed to stressful environmental conditions. So how do plants survive? A new Université de Montréal study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found a key mechanism that enables plants to keep dangerous gene alterations in check to ensure their continued existence.

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