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New Study Shows Planting Trees May Not Be as Good for the Climate as Believed
- schiffern 3y agoSo forests have a lower albedo, but simultaneously they're observed to be cooler than surrounding land. The missing piece is transpiration. Only ~3% of absorbed sunlight energy goes into photosynthesis, but ~50% of the energy goes to buffering and transpiring (purifying) water. This process is ultimtely responsible for ~80% of the rainfall on the land parts of the Earth[0], ie it's the main reason why some of our continent interiors are not deserts. So maybe let's not rush to devalue those dark, dark forests just yet, when that absorbed sunlight is precisely what's powering our water cycle and holding off desertification. :-\ The study itself even acknowledges this omission: We note that other mechanisms by which tree cover may affect atmospheric composition, such as... changes in evapotranspiration (26), could influence our study’s outcomes. [0] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11983 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11983
- WheelsAtLarge 3y agoI've always thought that just planting trees to reduce CO2 is not the final solution. I suspect that preserving the whole forest ecology is the key to keeping carbon sequestered. A healthy forest requires plenty of carbon to survive. All animals and plants need carbon as part of their structure so there is a set amount of carbon that will stay in the forest as long as it's healthy and continues to thrive. As opposed to just planning trees that will eventually die and release the carbon back into the atmosphere as they decay. I feel that it's best to focus on creating healthy complete forests rather than just focusing on planting trees. It's not the final solution but it certainly can help.