Scientists report trees absorb methane as well Premium
The Hindu
Tree bark absorbs methane, a potent greenhouse gas, offering a nature-based climate solution with significant climate benefits.
Tree bark in the world’s forests absorbs the greenhouse gas methane, my colleagues and I have demonstrated for the first time on a global scale – a discovery that could have big implications for tackling climate change.
As trees photosynthesise, their leaves take up carbon dioxide (CO₂) and lock it away as biomass in their trunks and branches providing a long-term store of carbon. But now, our large-scale study proves that there’s another way that trees absorb greenhouse gases – so forests can provide even more climate benefits than previously thought.
Methane has contributed about a third of the observed climate warming since preindustrial times. Concentrations of methane in the atmosphere have been rising rapidly for the best part of two decades.
That’s a real problem for Earth’s climate because methane traps much more heat in the atmosphere than the equivalent amount of CO₂. But while CO₂ can last in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, methane has a lifetime of around ten years.
This short atmospheric lifetime means that any changes to sources of methane or processes that remove methane from the atmosphere (known as methane sinks) can have rapid effects. If removal is enhanced, this can be a quick climate win helping to mitigate escalating climate change.
That’s why researchers are so interested in understanding how methane gets into the atmosphere and how different processes remove it. It’s why my team of ecologists and climate scientists have been studying the exchange of methane between tree bark, a surface that had previously been overlooked for its climate contribution, and the atmosphere.
Wetlands are known to be the primary natural source of methane – trees in swamps and floodplains can emit methane from the lower portions of their trunks. But methane exchange in trees growing on free-draining soils that don’t flood – that includes most of the world’s forests – has not been well-studied, until now.