Scientists warmed Minnesota trees by 3.4°C; they adapted to most of the heat

In a Minnesota forest, researchers turned up the heat, not for days or weeks, but for years. Beneath the trees, heating cables warmed the soil, while infrared heaters raised the temperature around the plants. And the goal was to see what happens when forests experience conditions resembling a warmer future. What they found challenged a key assumption about how trees respond to climate change.What did the researchers find? According to the study titled "Boreal and temperate trees show strong acclimation of respiration to warming," researchers studied juvenile trees representing 10 North American species growing under forest conditions. In this experiment, some trees were exposed to temperatures about 3.4°C above ambient conditions, while others experienced normal temperatures. The focus was leaf respiration, the process through which plants release carbon dioxide as they use stored energy.