Research Brief: Even modest warming could cause major changes for forests in the Great Lakes region and southern Canada

Even relatively modest climate change could dramatically alter Minnesota’s Northwoods and the southern boreal forest that runs from eastern Canada to Alaska, according to new research led by Peter Reich, a professor in the Department of Forest Resources. Him and his team conducted a rare long-term experiment to find out how climate change would impact seedlings and saplings of nine tree species common in the southern boreal forests.These changes could have devastating implications for one of the planet’s largest intact forests, which provides timber, houses biodiversity and helps slow climate change by holding on to a significant portion of the planet’s terrestrial carbon.