cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/57091301
China plans expanding 49.5 million hectares of new forests by 2050 to strengthen carbon sequestration. However, estimates of the carbon benefits from this expansion rarely consider the effect of ‘forest edge’, where tree mortality increases under intensified stress from wind, drought, pests, and fire. Here we show that proximity to forest edges substantially reduces biomass carbon storage, and develop a spatial optimization strategy that prioritizes planting in areas that minimize edge effects. Our projections show that forestation optimized for edge effects results in a 51% increase in carbon gain (986 ± 22 Tg by 2060), with approximately half of the total gain driven by reduced edge effects. These findings demonstrate that ignoring edge effects can significantly overestimate carbon sink potential and highlight spatially optimized forestation as a pathway to maximize climate mitigation and ecological benefits.
Everything is temporary. Plant matter is the only thing we have to turn CO2 into a stable solid as far as I know.
Yeah, but having plants grow (they do that by themselves faster with more CO²) is not the solution to climate change it is often lauded to be (for example Ecosia “offsetting” their carbon footprint).
But if you find a way to put the greenery outside earths carbon cycle, that would be a solution.