Diseased Trees New Source of Climate Gas

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120807151309.htm

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Diseased trees in forests may be a significant new source of methane that causes climate change. Although outwardly healthy, some older trees are being hollowed out by a common fungal infection that slowly eats through the trunk, creating conditions favorable to methane-producing microorganisms called methanogens. (Credit: © Anio / Fotolia)

ScienceDaily (Aug. 7, 2012) — Diseased trees in forests may be a significant new source of methane that causes climate change, according to researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in Geophysical Research Letters.

Sixty trees sampled at Yale Myers Forest in northeastern Connecticut contained concentrations of methane that were as high as 80,000 times ambient levels. Normal air concentrations are less than 2 parts per million, but the Yale researchers found average levels of 15,000 parts per million inside trees.

"These are flammable concentrations," said Kristofer Covey, the study's lead author and a Ph.D. candidate at Yale. "Because the conditions thought to be driving this process are common throughout the world's forests, we believe we have found a globally significant new source of this potent greenhouse gas."

[benld74]

1. We can't helps it we're sick! 'Cuse me,,,

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2. .

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Paper here…

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052361