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Updated: Nov 15, 2025

Author Spotlight: Leaf Trait Analysis for Climate and Ecology Reconstruction in Modern and Ancient Plant Communities
Published on: October 25, 2024
Comment on "Increased growing-season productivity drives earlier autumn leaf senescence in temperate trees"
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA. rnorby@utk.edu.
Abstract:
Zani et al (Research Articles, 27 November 2020, p. 1066) propose that enhancement of deciduous tree photosynthesis in a CO2-enriched atmosphere will advance autumn leaf senescence. This premise is not supported by consistent observations from free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments. In most FACE experiments, leaf senescence or abscission was not altered or was delayed in trees exposed to elevated CO2.
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