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Mesozoic polar forests
Between 250 and 50 million years ago, Earth's atmosphere contained more CO2 than at present, while polar regions were largely ice-free but extensively forested. These ancient forests therefore experienced extreme seasonal variations in light availability under a CO2-rich atmosphere. Beerling and Osborne (pp. 329-339) address the nature of the interaction and its consequences for aspects of the carbon balance of trees taking a novel experimental approach.
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