While trees have long been known to benefit the climate by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this new research reveals a surprising additional climate benefit. Microbes hidden in the bark of trees can absorb methane – a powerful greenhouse gas – from the atmosphere.
An international team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham has shown for the first time that microbes living in the bark or in the wood itself remove atmospheric methane at a rate equal to or greater than in the soil. They calculated that this newly discovered process makes trees a total of 10 % more beneficial to the climate than previously thought. (According to a study published July 24 in Nature, more at phys.org)