Earth’s forests endured a dramatic transformation during one of the planet’s most extreme episodes of global warming—and they took more than 100,000 years to fully recover.
The finding comes from a new study of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a period roughly 56 million years ago when huge amounts of carbon entered the atmosphere and global temperatures climbed sharply. Researchers say the ancient event provides an important glimpse into how forests can respond when the climate changes rapidly.
