A process is known as senescence which takes place each year – the leaves of deciduous trees turn yellow, orange, and red as they suspend growth and extract nutrients from foliage, will falling off ahead of winter.
And based on a new study, trees will start to shed their leaves earlier as the planet warms. It also marks the end of the period during which plants absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis.
Due to global warming, longer growing seasons take place –spring leaves are emerging in European trees about two weeks earlier, compared with 100 years ago, researchers said.
The ecosystem ecologist, Constantin Zohner, said that autumns will get warmer over the coming century, autumn will get delayed, growing seasons will overall get longer, and autumn will get delayed by two to three weeks.
The increase in spring and summer productivity that comes as a result of elevated carbon dioxide, temperature, and light levels, actually drive trees to lose their leaves earlier.
The fall temperatures and day length were the main environmental factors that cause trees to lose their leaves.
The findings, Zohner said, have shown that trees have productivity constraints.
“We cannot just put more and more CO2 in the atmosphere and (expect) trees will just do so much more – there are limits,” he said.
