Earth/Environment
Tracking carbon dioxide, fingerprinting uranium and understanding phthalates in boys in this week's news
By Science News
Trees’ mighty appetite
Forests across the globe sop up an estimated 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon per year from the atmosphere, a new calculation shows, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide. But because many existing forest stands get harvested each year and release their stored carbon, the net result is slightly more than 1 billion tons more carbon entering forests than leaving them, an international team of researchers reports online July 14 in Science. Although the amount of carbon capture within the environment was known to be large, exactly how much was stored in the environment and where — such as in trees — has been uncertain. —Janet Raloff