{"id":713881,"date":"2026-07-27T16:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713881\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T16:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:44:10","slug":"why-scientists-watched-grass-grow-in-harpenden-for-170-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713881\/","title":{"rendered":"Why scientists watched grass grow in Harpenden for 170 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">As the experiment moves into its next century, much of the focus is on climate change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Looking ahead to the next 170 years, Gregory said:  &#8220;The most interesting will be the interactions with a changing climate and how the normal patterns of weather are maybe not going to be the case in the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Already, researchers can see specific patterns; for instance, drier springs and early summers tend to result in decreased yields.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said higher levels of carbon dioxide could increase yields, but that benefit may be outweighed by drought.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Samples collected today may also help future scientists answer questions researchers have not yet thought of.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said: &#8220;There&#8217;s traits that we don&#8217;t yet know, but which might be measured on the samples that we collect this year in decades ahead, I think it&#8217;s essentially adding to the history building on this legacy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Do you have a story suggestion for Beds, Herts or Bucks? Contact us below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the experiment moves into its next century, much of the focus is on climate change. Looking ahead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-713881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}