Rainforest trees may have been dying faster since the 1980s because of climate change - study

It finds average tree death rates in these forests have doubled over the past four decades. Researchers found trees are living around half as long, which is a pattern consistent across species and sites across the region. This is because rainforest trees can have such long lives and also that tree death is not always immediate.’Recent studies in Amazonia have also suggested tropical tree death rates are increasing, thus weakening the carbon sink. Examining the climate ranges of the tree species showing the highest death rates, the team suggests the main climate driver is the increasing drying power of the atmosphere. The study followed the fate of more than 8,300 trees over 50 years’ of data in 24 permanent moist tropical forest plots.