The Coast Of North Carolina Has “Gassy Trees”
According to Science News, North Carolina is full of gassy trees! If a tree farts in the forest, does it make a sound? No, but it does add a smidge of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. Gases released by dead trees – dubbed “tree farts” – account for roughly one-fifth of the greenhouse gases emitted by skeletal, marshy forests along the coast of North Carolina, researchers report online May 10 in Biogeochemistry.
While these emissions pale in comparison with other sources, a team of ecologists went sniffing for tree farts in ghost forests, which form when saltwater from rising sea levels poisons a woodland, leaving behind a marsh full of standing dead trees in order to get an accurate picture of where climate-warming gases come from. Here pull my branches!
