Ancient forests took 100,000 years to recover from the last global warming period similar to today – Wyoming fossils reveal what happened

Researchers analyzing fossilized leaf cuticles from 56-million-year-old Wyoming sediments found that forest canopies lost 60% of their density during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a period when global temperatures rose by up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit. The thinning happened even though the forests had reached peak density just before the warming began, as rising carbon dioxide initially boosted growth.

Once heat and drought overwhelmed that benefit, trees died en masse, exposing soil to erosion and altering river sediment patterns, and the canopy stayed diminished for more than 100,000 years before eventually recovering to greater density than before.

The study's authors note today's human-driven carbon emissions are occurring roughly 10 times faster than the natural processes that triggered the ancient event, a comparison offered as a cautionary benchmark rather than a reassurance.

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