Trees Might Not Be As Effective at Combating Climate Change As We Thought



It is yet unclear what factors restrict tree growth.

The development of trees appears to be constrained by cell growth rather than photosynthesis, according to new findings from an international team of scientists. The U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II provided funding for the study, which was released in the journal Science on May 12th.

The study's conclusions are shocking as well. A significant amount of our present carbon dioxide emissions are currently absorbed and stored by forests. The ability of the trees to absorb carbon and delay climate change would decrease if forest expansion slows.

The study also discovered that photosynthesis and tree development respond differently to various climate cues, indicating that current models of forest carbon sequestration may overestimate the capacity of forests to store atmospheric carbon. The findings emphasize the need of taking into consideration methods other than photosynthesis when estimating the amount of carbon that trees can store.

Through photosynthesis, forests absorb and sequester atmospheric carbon as soil and woody biomass. Currently, this method offsets around 25% of annual anthropogenic carbon emissions. Using trees to absorb carbon is typically regarded as an appealing natural way to combat climate change since rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) promotes photosynthesis through a mechanism known as carbon fertilization.

It has long been believed that the amount of atmospheric carbon regulates how much carbon can be stored by plants during photosynthesis and overall plant growth. A growing body of research, however, suggests that this may not be the case and that other factors, such as temperature, water availability, and nutrient availability, may have an impact on how much carbon is stored in forests. As a result, estimates of the potential carbon storage capacity of worldwide forests are greatly unknown with regard to forest carbon sequestration.

Antoine Cabon and colleagues used estimates of the carbon absorbed by plants during photosynthesis from 78 forests throughout the world and compared them to tree-ring growth data from the Tree-Ring Data Bank to better understand forest carbon uptake and its relationship to woody growth. The team discovered a significant decoupling between photosynthesis (production) and plant development, with variation depending on tree species, ecosystem characteristics, and climate conditions. This finding suggests that the relationship between the two is not as linear as previously thought.

The findings point out tree growth restrictions, particularly in arid and cold climates, which may continue to impair forests' ability to store carbon. According to Julia Green and Trevor Keenan, "The results published by Cabon et al. have implications for using natural ecosystems to absorb carbon and for the effectiveness of natural climate solutions, such as planting trees, in combatting climate change."

By AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 

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