World's biggest terrestrial carbon sinks are found in young forests

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2019/02/World's-biggest-terrestrial-carbon-sinks-are-found-in-young-forests.aspx

World's biggest terrestrial carbon sinks are found in young forests

Posted on 18 Feb 2019

More than half of the carbon sink in the world’s forests is in areas where the trees are relatively young – under 140 years old – rather than in tropical rainforests, research at the University of Birmingham shows.

These trees have typically ‘regrown’ on land previously used for agriculture, or cleared by fire or harvest and it is their young age that is one of the main drivers of this carbon uptake.

Forests are widely recognised as important carbon sinks – ecosystems capable of capturing and storing large amounts of carbon dioxide – but dense tropical forests, close to the equator have been assumed to be working the hardest to soak up these gases.

Researchers at the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) have carried out fresh analysis of the global biosphere using a new combination of data and computer modelling in a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Drawing on data sets of forest age, they were able to show the amount of carbon uptake between 2001 and 2010 by old, established areas of forest.

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1. Good news for a change.

This is something we can do now. Plant trees and reclaim arid land through permaculture principles.
let lawns go to return them to natural meadows to increase insect habitat. Amazing the biodiversity that happens very quickly.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Yes, it is. Mind you, if you want to limit warming to 1.5C... this won't get you there by itself

https://democraticunderground.com/1127112077

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3. no one thing will. I will take any reasonable method we can find.