Minnesota experimental forests show modest temperature increases can have big impact

You’re hiking through a forest in northern Minnesota. Beautiful red and white pines tower overhead. And then you see something that looks strangely out of place.

Infrared lamps project heat onto small trees. A maze of electrical cables run into the ground and heat the soil around the tree roots. What’s going on here?

It’s an experiment on a University of Minnesota field plot to gauge the impact of our warming climate on Minnesota’s northern boreal forests.

The experiments have been ongoing for more than a decade, but new findings were recently published in the journal Nature. They suggest that even small temperature changes can have a big effect on our boreal forests.

Peter Reich, director of the Institute for Global Change Biology at the University of Michigan and professor at the University of Minnesota, joined Climate Cast this week to talk about the study.

Click play on the audio player above or subscribe to the Climate Cast podcast to hear more.