A new study details evidence that trees in the rain forests near Africa's Congo River basin have become less green due to climate change.
Drier conditions and a waning capacity to photosynthesize appear to be responsible for the trees' loss of green, The New York Times reported.
Publishing their findings in the journal Nature, the researchers wrote that in the long term, the rain forest could shift to being more like a savanna with an open environment instead of the tight canopy of trees overhead.
"Trees are not as vigorous without enough water," said lead study author Liming Zhou of the University at Albany, as quoted by the Times.
Since the study only examined the last decade, the results are too limited to definitively point to upcoming changes.
"But that's what we're worried about for the future, in the context of global warming," Zhou said.
The team used satellite imagery to study the area, looking at images collected at the same point from year to year. Zhou and others have noted that remote-sensing satellite data is insufficient to confirm whether or not the trees are suffering from drought.
"This is the type of signal you'd expect if a region is experiencing a directed shift in climate," said Jeffrey Q. Chambers, a geographer at the University of California, Berkeley, according to the Times. "What needs to happen now is continued observation to better understand whether, in fact, this is a climate-related trend."
Chambers, who wrote a commentary on the new study that was also published in Nature, noted that, "Satellite data can only tell you so much. You really need to get into the field and see what's happening."
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