Turning Over A New Leaf Drives Forest Productivity

Plants and Animals





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It's the quality, not the quantity, of these leaves that determines how much carbon dioxide they remove. Ammit Jack/Shutterstock

New leaves are much more effective photosynthesizers than old ones. A team of scientists are arguing that our failure to take this into account explains why we have struggled to understand seasonal changes in the productivity of tropical rainforests. By looking at the forests, not the leaves, we've ignored the impact of leaf quality.