Tropical forest around the Capim River, Brazil

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features forests around the Capim River (Rio Capim) in Brazil. 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 satellite mission has found that, surprisingly, younger trees are champions at carbon capture.

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 aged 140 years and above were approximately carbon neutral, which is the opposite of vegetation model predictions.

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