Impacts of Climate Change on the Tree Line

The possible effects of climate change on the advance of the tree line are considered. As temperature, elevated CO(2) and nitrogen deposition co-vary, it is impossible to disentangle their impacts without performing experiments. However, it does seem very unlikely that photosynthesis per se and, by implication, factors that directly influence photosynthesis, such as elevated CO(2), will be as important as those factors which influence the capacity of the tree to use the products of photosynthesis, such as temperature. Moreover, temperature limits growth more severely than it limits photosynthesis over the temperature range 5-20 degrees C. If it is assumed that growth and reproduction are controlled by…