Trees could be Key Protagonist for Forest-grassland Transitions

A study investigating the transition from forests to savannas and vice versa has found that trees could be the key protagonists.

The paper "Physiological responses to low CO₂ over prolonged drought as primers for forest-grassland transitions," published in Nature Plants, found advantages and disadvantages of trees, links to the change from a forest to a savanna.

Savannas are important ecosystems that cover large parts of the globe. Previous studies to understand how savannas function has focused on disturbance. If fire and herbivores are kept away, savannas become tropical forests. If forests are burned, they turn into grasslands which may soon become savannas.

Researcher Dr. Chandra Bellasio said, "It is unclear how disturbance could have caused the original decline of closed tropical forests, as these types of forests do not burn and do not support large herbivores."