Longer growing seasons will not offset the impacts of summer drought on forest growth
Published: Wednesday 19.11.2025
Climate change is extending the growing season in European forests, but this effect will not be sufficient to offset the negative impacts of increasing drought stress. This is a conclusion of an international research team led by Jan Tumajer from the Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, which analyzed more than 2,000 tree-ring width chronologies across Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. The study, recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, shows that while a longer growing season may promote tree growth until mid-century, the negative effects of summer drought will outweigh the benefits of the extended growing season in drier regions after the 2050s.
