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Life

Climate change can disturb the accuracy of trees’ biological clocks

Trees use circadian genes to time photosynthesis and reproduction – but as temperatures rise, the clocks may not work as well

By Christie Taylor

3 April 2024

Nothofagus pumilio

Nothofagus pumilio trees growing in Patagonia

Album/Alamy

The higher temperatures brought on by global warming can disrupt trees’ ability to track time, with potential consequences for their capacity to sequester carbon or even survive.

Climate change is already disturbing the timings of events in ecosystems by shuffling migrations, breeding, and food cycles that have historically been intricately coordinated. But like humans and other animals, plants have a genetic ability to track time that functions independently of their ecosystems.

María Verónica Arana at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and her colleagues studied saplings of Nothofagus…

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