Paper Reviewed
van der Sleen, P., Groenendijk, P., Vlam, M., Anten, N.P.R., Boom, A., Bongers, F., Pons, T.L., Terburg, G. and Zuidema, P.A. 2014. No growth stimulation of tropical trees by 150 years of CO2 fertilization but water-use efficiency increased. Nature Geoscience 10.1038/NGEO2313.

In a paper published in Nature Geoscience, van der Sleen et al. (2014) write that "based on growth rings in the wood of 1,100 trees from Bolivia, Cameroon and Thailand," they found "no evidence" for "concurrent acceleration of individual tree growth," when analyzing the width of the trees' growth rings that were produced over the past 150 years. And, hence, they conclude that "the widespread assumption of a CO2-induced stimulation of tropical tree growth may not be valid."

In reality, however, there is no such widespread assumption. Rather, there is a widespread body of knowledge that there is, in fact, a remarkable "CO2-induced stimulation of tropical tree growth," much of which body of knowledge may be found in our website's Subject Index, under the heading of Trees (Types - Tropical). There, one may read individual reviews of 29 such publications, which together cite a total of 72 pertinent scientific papers. And one may also peruse a brief Summary - based on all but the two most recent such reviews - which concludes as follows.

"In light of these and the many other positive findings of all of the studies reviewed above, therefore, it should be clear that as the air's CO2 content continues to rise, tropical and sub-tropical trees will likely display enhanced rates of photosynthesis and biomass production, even under conditions of herbivory, water stress and elevated air temperature. And as a result, greater sequestration of carbon will also likely occur within earth's tropical and sub-tropical forests, as the greening of the Earth continues."