changeadminAmong the innumerable benefits of trees, you can add one more.
The latest discovery has revealed a new fact that reemphasizes that trees are nature’s champions in fighting climate change.
How? The bark of the trees can absorb and remove methane, a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for about 30% of global warming since the pre-industrial era.
Until now, soil was considered the only terrestrial sink for methane.
Pioneering research, led by the University of Birmingham has unveiled that microbes living in tree bark and wood are removing atmospheric methane on a level comparable to that of soil.
Why Methane Removal is Critical
Methane (CH4) is a gas, consisting of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms.
The gas comes from natural sources like wetlands and human activities like animal agriculture, fossil fuels, and the decomposition of landfill waste.
In the last 200 years, the majority of methane emissions come from human-caused activity and its concentration in the atmosphere has more than doubled in this period.
According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Methane is the primary contributor to the formation of ground-level ozone, a hazardous air pollutant and greenhouse gas, exposure to which causes 1 million premature deaths every year. Methane is also a powerful greenhouse gas. Over a 20-year period, it is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide.”
With emissions rising faster than ever, policymakers, innovators, and the scientific community are grappling with the challenges of removing methane from the atmosphere.
At the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow, more than 100 countries signed a Global Methane Pledge that aims to cut methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by the end of this decade.
Plant Trees to Remove Methane
As the countries work to cut methane emissions that largely come from sources such as livestock, oil and gas industries, landfills, and coal mining, the research has made planting trees even more attractive.
While we know Trees and Forests play a huge role in protecting the environment and fighting climate change, the latest research has shown a remarkable new way in which trees provide a vital climate service.
The microbes living in the woody surfaces of trees are removing atmospheric methane, specifically above the heights of 1 to 1.3 m. However, the research also observed that tree trunks, close to the soil tended to release small amounts of methane, but overall they consumed more than they released.
The team of researchers studied trees spanning across tropical forests in the Amazon and Panama; temperate broadleaf trees in Wytham Woods in the UK; and boreal coniferous forests in Sweden.
To analyze the tree’s ability to remove methane, they employed advanced 3D laser scans of trees to measure the global tree bark surface area for their absorption capabilities. The initial calculations indicate that up to 50 million tonnes of methane are absorbed by trees annually.
The methane absorption was strongest in the tropical forests, likely because of microbes getting a conducive environment in the warm wet conditions.
The researchers are planning new research to understand these methane-removing microbes and explore if their ability can be enhanced. They are also working to find out if deforestation has led to increased atmospheric methane concentrations.
Before this research, it was considered that most methane is removed by processes in the atmosphere, and on land it is the bacteria in the soil that absorb the gas and break it down for use as energy.
The results of this study have added a new dimension of looking at the trees and their importance in our lives.
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