Trees make hot days a little cooler. Well duh, you might say, everyone knows that shade from trees is good.
But a newly-published study from shows that the quality of the cooling depends on the kind of forest.
Specifically, old-growth forests with tight canopies and dense undergrowth appear to offer more cooling than single-species tree plantations, a distinction that could matter more as the Earth warms. Sarah Frey, postdoctoral scholar at OSU's College of Forestry, visits The Exchange with details of the study.
