‘CSI Amazon’: Epic study looks at what’s killing Amazon trees
As more trees die in the Amazon Basin, the forest’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide weakens. However, the main drivers of tree death across the region have been largely unknown, until now.A newly published study in the journal Nature Communications provides insight into why trees die in the Amazon, and why the rate of tree death may be increasing.According to the study, the main risk factor explaining tree death is the mean growth rate of species. Faster-growing tree species tend to have shorter life spans, and thus record more deaths over a given period.As climate change progresses, these f...