New research from a Florida State University scientist has revealed a surprising relationship betwee

Researchers studying the tropical forests of Panama's Barro Colorado Island found that climbing rates of carbon dioxide have set the stage for a multi decade increase in overall flower production!

The findings were outlined in a paper published in the journal Global Change Biology.

"It's really remarkable," said Assistant Professor of Geography Stephanie Pau, who led the study. "Over the past several decades, we've seen temperatures warming and carbon dioxide increasing, and our study found that this tropical forest has responded to that increase by producing more flowers."

This suggest that tropical forests may be more sensitive to subtle climate changes than some ecologists predicted.

"Tropical forests have evolved in generally stable climates," Pau said.

For this study, he evaluated a record of plant material collected by researchers on the island over 28 years. She and her colleagues then examined a host of climatic drivers, temperature, rainfall, light and carbon dioxide, appeared to affect the annual flowering activity and flowering duration of the different species in the forest.

During her investigation, one factor stood out.

"What we were able to do in this paper is ask why flower activity has been increasing over the long term," Pau said. "We found that carbon dioxide clearly seems to have the largest effect on the increase in flowers."

Plants convert carbon dioxide into energy in the form of sugars, which they can use to fuel any vital life processes. As more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, plants have an opportunity to produce a lot of new energy.

The dramatic, long-term rise in flowering shows that the forest are showing those stores of energy toward increased reproduction.

However, while some species have continued to exhibit elevating rates of flower activity to higher carbon dioxide, others, like certain canopy trees and lianas, have shown more stabilised flowering in recent years.

"Tropical species may generally be more sensitive than we expected, but not all species are responding the same," Pau said.

But as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations keep climbing, the global climate changes

accordingly . Temperamental tropical forests may continue to experience new and surprising shifts.

"These tropical species have evolved in warm regions, so there may be an expectation that climate change won't affect them," Pau said. "But what we've shown is that they are in fact extremely sensitive to even small changes in their climate."

Thank you

Adi, GreenPlanet