New Studies Point to ‘Carbon Starvation’ as a Cause for Tree Mortality
Tree death rates could increase globally because of rising temperatures and prolonged droughts linked to climate change, according to multiple studies.
The reasons for tree mortality in a warmer, drier world have been narrowed down to three main scenarios — greater prevalence of insects and diseases in a warmer world, the drying out of plants, and a third mechanism where water-stressed trees stop photosynthesizing, called carbon starvation.