Change in biomass 2010–2019

Thanks to their ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, forests have long been recognised as a key tool in the fight against climate change. New research, however, based on data from ESA’s SMOS L-band satellite mission has found that, surprisingly, young trees are champions at carbon capture.

Recent technical advances that remove interference and data artifacts have made it possible to obtain sufficiently robust measurements of L-band microwave vegetation optical depth (L-VOD) to assess live woody vegetative biomass and diagnose global changes in terrestrial carbon stocks.

The image shows biomass change between 2010 and 2019 based on L-VOD data from SMOS.

Gains in carbon-rich biomass come largely from boreal and temperate forests, with tropical forests adding only small increases in carbon – the result of deforestation and agricultural disturbances. Surprisingly, the research found that young and middle-aged forests – comprising trees between 50 to 140 years of age – played a dominant role absorbing atmospheric carbon and accumulating biomass. Forests 140 years old and above were approximately carbon neutral, which is the opposite of vegetation model predictions.

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