Ugh, I want to be positive about this, I really do, but I just seems wrong to me on so many levels.
We didn't even understand basic things about trees till like a few decades ago leading to stupidly counterproductive practices like spraying glyphosate all over public lands to create 'free to grow' tree plantations on what used to be forests.
All of this is done by forestry companies on public land.
If trees needed to photosynthesise faster they would already be doing it.
The fact that they aren't using this adaptation (or some other one) means that probably photosynthesis speed is already being traded off against some other factor in their communities (they form relationships with other species which we barely understand).
Edit: About those free to grow plantations? It turns out that they were trying to get rid of Alder which they thought was competing with Spruce. It turns out that the Alder were feeding the Spruce seedlings instead.
We didn't even understand basic things about trees till like a few decades ago leading to stupidly counterproductive practices like spraying glyphosate all over public lands to create 'free to grow' tree plantations on what used to be forests.
All of this is done by forestry companies on public land.
If trees needed to photosynthesise faster they would already be doing it.
The fact that they aren't using this adaptation (or some other one) means that probably photosynthesis speed is already being traded off against some other factor in their communities (they form relationships with other species which we barely understand).
Edit: About those free to grow plantations? It turns out that they were trying to get rid of Alder which they thought was competing with Spruce. It turns out that the Alder were feeding the Spruce seedlings instead.