
© NASA
Photograph by Jason A.C. Brock of Roundtimber, Texas.
Here's a surprise. The growth of trees in Britain appears to correlate to cosmic ray intensity. University of Edinburgh researchers have found that
trees are growing faster when high levels of cosmic radiation arrive from space. This may also correlate to the Interplanetary Magnetic Field which tends to modulate Galactic Cosmic Rays. The discover lends credence to Svensmark's work on GCR to cloud cover correlation by demonstrating yet another tangible effect.
The researchers made the discovery studying how growth rings of spruce trees changed over the past half a century.
Here's the kicker:
the variation in cosmic rays affected the tree growth more than changes in temperature or precipitation.
The
study is published in the scientific journal
New Phytologist.
A relationship between galactic cosmic radiation and tree rings
Sigrid Dengel, Dominik Aeby and John Grace
Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Science, School of GeoSciences, Crew Building, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3JN, UK