"Earth's forests, it turns out, play a dominant role in absorbing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, acting like a giant sponge and soaking up on average about 8.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, the new study led by the US Forest Service shows – or about one-third of fossil fuel emissions annually during the 1990-2007 study period. In the end, about 2.4 billion tons of solid carbon were locked away in wood fiber each year over that period – a surprise to scientists."
“The new information suggests forests alone account for the most significant terrestrial carbon sink, and that non-forest lands collectively cannot be considered a major carbon absorption sink,” said Yude Pan, a US Forest Service scientist and a lead author of the study, in a statement. That finding could have big implications for national forest policies worldwide, implying that as forests go, so too does the planet."
The research indicates that while tropical forests are crucial, forests in temperate zones are playing a surprisingly large part. Such forests are either stable or growing in Siberia, the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S. alone, forests with new growth had upped the carbon intake by a third since 1990.
But even when safer from being cut down, these forests are endangered by disease, insects and drought, as in Canada, which is losing net forest. Particularly as the Climate Crisis permits insects to range farther north and live more of the year, the danger increases.
No comments:
Post a Comment