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sooibot t1_jd35s4p wrote

In South Africa, Oak trees brought here by Europeans are one of the "drawing points" for a few beautiful places. The trees though (or so I've been told) grow more per season. This makes them brittle, and they "hollow out" as the hardwood almost crackles and disintegrates.

This means the trees become dangerous as they get old, and never make it past a few centuries.

What, if any, is the odds that the great northern forests will suffer the same fate?

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Superb_Nature_2457 t1_jd4gl6h wrote

I mean, depending on the type, oaks don’t live longer than a few centuries normally. Their normal lifespans are 100-300, with some as short as 50 and others as long as 600. Trees are like other living things: They age and die.

There are some interesting studies on the impact of longer growing seasons. The extended growing seasons may make up for slower growth during increasingly common droughts, and they might also help store more carbon.

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/climate-change-warming-may-extend-some-tree-growing-seasons-and-compensate-reduced-carbon-uptake-2022-11-30_en

The biggest visible impact climate change will have on forests (outside of wildfires) will be seen in forest composition as species more acclimated to warmer temps take over. It’s not like trees die and then nothing takes their place. Even coastal ghost forests see shifts in species. The great northern forests likely won’t vanish; they’ll change how they look. Funny enough, that might mean more oak and hickory in some places.

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