Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a rare look at how an ecosystem is responding to climate change.

For more than 20 years forest ecologist Geoffrey Parker has tracked the growth of 55 stands of mixed hardwood forest plots in Maryland. The plots range in size, and some are as large as 2 acres. Parker’s research is based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 26 miles east of the nation’s capital.

The United States, China and the European Union have all signed on to the Copenhagen Accord, writing to the United Nations before yesterday’s deadline to formally reaffirm their intention to combat global warming.

The United Nations plans to publish today a list of commitments by participating countries, which also include Australia, Indonesia, Canada, Japan and India. While the total number of participating countries has not yet been announced, it is expected to include at least 51 countries producing a substantial majority of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The prairies and woodlands of North Texas soon will become part of a project to increase scientists’ understanding of climate change, biodiversity, species and pollution.

The Caddo-LBJ National Grasslands will join the National Ecological Observatory Network, a series of 20 eco-climatic domains that will be used to study the forces that affect ecosystems. The project is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and has received $27 million in federal funding.

A major new initiative of the Encyclopedia of Earth is the Climate Change Collection. Part of this initiative includes presenting late breaking news on climate-related issues here at the EarthNews.

Hundreds of scientific reports and articles related to climate change are published in dozens of journals and proceedings each month.

We are starting a new project to help members of the Encyclopedia of Earth and EarthPortal communities apprised of some of the latest scientific publications. Team members, including some of our famed E-scribes, will be scanning the scientific literature to identify article and reports of major scientific importance and/or of great interest to the the EarthPortal community. In the near future, look for listings of these new publications, along with a synopsis of each publication and a link to the official abstract of the work.