1. Anthropogenic forcing increases the water-use efficiency of African trees.
- Author
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Wils, Tommy H. G., Robertson, Iain, Woodborne, Stephan, Hall, Grant, Koprowski, Marcin, and Eshetu, Zewdu
- Subjects
PLANT water requirements ,ANTHROPOGENIC effects on nature ,WATER supply management ,ATMOSPHERIC models ,PHYSIOLOGICAL effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide ,PLANTS - Abstract
ABSTRACT Rising atmospheric CO
2 concentrations affect climate directly through radiative effects and indirectly by changing plant water-use efficiency. Under global warming scenarios these widely reported changes will have a substantial impact on future bush encroachment, crop yields, river flow and climate feedbacks. Tree-ring intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) records for Africa show a 24.6% increase over the 20th century. As high iWUE can partly counterbalance projected decreases in regional precipitation, this research has important implications for those involved in water resource management and highlights the need for climate models to take physiological forcing into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2016
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