Benostrophy

Perhaps what the world needs is a cataclysmic event that is so big and good that it is the complete opposite of a catastophy. Like the third sticking snow event at home here under 1000 ft sea level near the pacific coast. The horse (she's 28) is licking the snow - this micro-local scenery is awesome.

Meanwhile, Rep. R. Pombo and his cronies plot to sell the national forest to the timber industry. They wouldn't do that, would they? Read this. Definitely not good for those of us who believe that the forests are part of the climate support system.

Heavy Science Warning - danger , danger - not popular opinion.
Since respiration is a continual function (in animals, we call it breathing), it seems to me that the total surface area is the key factor in oxygen exchange, not the bulk growth. If you could sum up both the leaf area and the bolus surface area, they probably each function at a different rate, complementary to the season and availability of sunlight energy. If you do the math concerning the rate of flux, the has to be a much higher flux for older trees in both areas - more leaves and more bark surface area - because old trees have porous bark that is not smooth. Forestry math in the first approximation treats a bolus as a cylindrical sphere - great for volume calculation, but grossly inaccurate for surface area.