Douglas Isbell

Headquarters, Washington, DC April 17, 1997

(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Lynn Chandler
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-9016)

RELEASE: 97-71

PLANT GROWTH IN NORTHERN LATITUDES

INCREASED BY TEN PERCENT DURING 1980s

Plant growth in Earth's northern regions increased by ten

percent from 1981 to 1991, and by the end of this period annual
growth began about eight days earlier, according to new NASA-
funded research published in today's issue of the scientific
journal "Nature."

These findings imply that vegetation in Earth's northern

high latitudes (between
45-70 degrees North) is actively responding to previously
reported measurements of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide
levels and warmer-than-average surface temperatures in the
north during the past three decades.

"Our results demonstrate that Earth's biosphere -- its

plants, animals and life -- is not a passive participant in our
planet's environment," said Dr. Ranga Myneni of Boston
University, a co-author of the study. "The warming during
springtime is particularly significant because of the related
decline in snow cover. As a result, spring greening is
happening significantly earlier."

While the global effects of such greening may be small,

"regionally, they could be highly significant for interests
such as agriculture and land-use planning," said co-author
Dr. Ghassem Asrar of NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. "In
addition, our initial analysis of data from 1992 - 1994
indicates that the trends are continuing."

The published research was conducted by scientists from

Boston University, Boston, the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, La Jolla, CA; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, MD; NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC; and the
University of Montana in Missoula, using data from Advanced
Very High Resolution Radiometer instruments aboard the NOAA-7,
NOAA-9 and NOAA-11 satellites. The Sahara Desert in Africa was
used as a common reference point to adjust the measurements
across the different sensors.

Vegetation in the latitudes north of 45 degrees covers

about 13.6 million square miles (35.3 million square
kilometers), or approximately 35 percent of global vegetation
during August, the greenest month of the year. In general, the
greatest increases in vegetation took place inland from oceans.
Bands of increased growth were measured from Spain in a
northeasterly direction across central Europe and southern
Russia, and in North America from Alaska in a southeasterly
direction to the U.S. Great Lakes and northeast again to
Labrador in Canada. Outside of this band, little change was
seen in the continental United States.

Living plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in

the process known as photosynthesis. "Any predictions of
future concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide must now
include the response of global vegetation," said Myneni.
"While plant growth tends to cool the immediate surroundings,
we do not yet know what this finding means in terms of climate
change."

"These findings add support to the emerging idea that

regional changes in Earth's land, air and oceans are likely
more extreme than those considered in an exclusively global
context," Asrar added.

The full scientific paper and related color graphics are

available on the Internet at the following URL:

http://www.forestry.umt.edu/ntsg/nature/

The research is funded by NASA's Office of Mission to

Planet Earth, a long-term, internationally coordinated research
effort to study the Earth as a global environmental system.

-end-