Researchers have found that droughts kill pine trees faster when temperatures are higher, a piece of information that bodes ill for forests in a warmer world. A new study examined the effect of dry conditions and temperature on the pinion pine, a hardy evergreen that lives in the American Southwest, and found that "
together, drought and temperature can kind of provide a double whammy," said David Breshears, a researcher involved in the experiment [Reno Gazette Journal].
Researchers could isolate the impact of heat due to the unusual environment where the experiment took place.
The study was conducted in Biosphere 2, a glass and steel laboratory that includes recreations of the planet's savannas, deserts, oceans and forests.... Half the pinions studied were kept in normal temperatures, the others in an environment 7 degrees warmer. Some trees in each group were then deprived of water to simulate droughts common in the ...
