The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Planting trees not always an effective way of binding carbon dioxide

A magnifying held towards greenary but shows industry polluting air. Photo montage.
Image: IStock

Tree-planting has been widely seen as an effective way of binding carbon as carbon dioxide levels rise in the atmosphere. But now, BECC researcher Louise Rüttinger among others, are warning that forests on nutrient-poor land won’t be an additional carbon sink in the long term. As forests age, their uptake of CO2 declines and, each time forests are planted, there is a risk of additional carbon being released from the soil.

BECC researcher at Gothenburg University, Louise Rüttinger, is one of the researchers behind a new study which shows that forests on nutrient-poor land won’t be an additional carbon sink in the long term. As forests age, their uptake of CO2 declines and, each time forests are planted, there is a risk of additional carbon being released from the soil.

Further reading

Continue reading the article on Gothenburg University website:

Planting trees not always an effective way of binding carbon dioxide

The study was published in Global Change Biology

Links across ecological scales: Plant biomass responses to elevated CO2