Some 400 Zurich to New York return flights’ worth of CO2 was released into the atmosphere as a result of two large storms in the 1990s, Swiss research has shown.
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Las tormentas provocan fugas masivas de CO2 en el suelo
The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) found that storms do not just knock down CO2 absorbing trees but also unlock the greenhouse gas from the soil underneath.
Storms Vivian (1990) and Lothar (1999) resulted in the release of 400,000 tons of CO2 that was trapped in forest soil.
“This corresponds to around the same amount of CO2 that forests will store in the tree biomass in a corresponding area for 40 years,” said Frank Hagedorn, co-author of the WSL study.
Swiss forest soil stores more CO2 than the trees standing above it, WSL found by sampling the soil following storms Vivian and Lothar over a period of years.
The research showed that forest soils become warmer and wetter after trees have been felled. This enables microbes to release CO2 by breaking down the humus layer of earth.
Mountain forests store more CO2 in the soil as they have a great mass of humus.
Leaving some of the deadwood knocked down by storms in forests could alleviate the problem by better promoting new growth, the researchers recommend.
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