Separate comprehensive studies published in the last couple of
days in Nature Climate Change and Nature Geoscience find that
from the northern tundra to the tropical forests, plant
communities are showing substantial capacity to tolerate global
warming. The work builds on earlier research on the
responsiveness to climate change of both tropical and Arctic
plant communities. Given trajectories pointing to centuries of
warming this is no reason to relax, of course. And, as you’ll
read below from an expert on the relationship of climate to
Arctic communities, there’s plenty of disruption coming. But it
is important to weigh such work in calculating risks and
benefits of various climate policies. Both papers are by
international teams of authors consisting of many of the best
and brightest minds probing these two parts of the globe. I have
queries out to some of both and will update this post as replies
come in. Here are links, abstracts and some excerpts: The paper
in Nature Climate Change, “Temperature and vege