Ancient polar forests may have influenced Earth's climate to a greater extent than previously thought, according to a study of five modern relatives of species that grew in them.
During four years of monitoring, David Beerling of the University of Sheffield, UK, Laura Llorens, now at the University of Girona in Spain, and their colleagues found that the trees emitted higher than expected levels of monoterpenes — compounds that produce secondary organic aerosols, which increase cloud cover. Emissions peaked during the prolonged periods of continuous light of the polar summer.
Given that the forests covered upwards of 40% of Earth's total land surface 145 million–65 million years ago, the group says that the monoterpenes the forests released could have had a large effect on the chemistry of the atmosphere and on climate.
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Geoscience: Ancient forests. Nature 457, 766 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457766b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/457766b
