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Amazon stores 10 billion tons of carbon in 'dead wood' mongabay.com August 12, 2009
The findings, published in Biogeosciences, provide a better picture of carbon dioxide emissions that result from the degradation and destruction of old growth forests and may help improve models used to determine compensation under a proposed scheme to pay tropical countries for reducing emissions from deforestation. The research was led by Kuo-Jung Chao of the University of Leeds, working with colleagues from RAINFOR, an international research network that works to "understand the biomass and dynamics of Amazonian forests." The Amazon is estimated to 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon, according to calculations by other scientists. K.-J. Chao et al. After trees die: quantities and determinants of necromass across Amazonia. Biogeosciences, 6, 1615–1626, 2009. Related articles Emissions from Amazon deforestation to rise as loggers move deeper into the rainforest (07/31/2009) Emissions from Amazon deforestation are growing as developers move deeper into old-growth forest areas where carbon density is higher, report scientists writing in Geophysical Research Letters. Amazon rainforest locks up 11 years of carbon dioxide emissions (10/17/2007) The amount and distribution of above ground biomass (or the amount of carbon contained in vegetation) in the Amazon basin is largely unknown, making it difficult to estimate how much carbon dioxide is produced through deforestation and how much is sequestered through forest regrowth. To address this uncertainty, a team of scientists from Caltech, the Woods Hole Institute, and INPE (Brazil's space agency), have developed a new method to determine forest biomass using remote sensing and field plot measurements. The researchers say the work will help them better understand the role of Amazon rainforest in global climate change. SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
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