{"id":109635,"date":"2024-10-02T20:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T13:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=109635"},"modified":"2024-10-02T20:00:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T13:00:59","slug":"this-random-3775-year-old-log-might-hold-one-secret-to-saving-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=109635","title":{"rendered":"This Random 3,775-Year-Old Log Might Hold One Secret To Saving The Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"isPasted\">What can an ancient gnarly log tell us about safeguarding the future? According to a new analysis of one 3,775-year-old chunk of tree, potentially quite a bit \u2013 thanks to an emerging climate solution known as \u201cwood vaulting\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>We often hear about the importance of trees in the fight against climate change, and that\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/is-planting-trees-the-solution-to-the-co2-problem-75279\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">for good reason<\/a>: they actively draw carbon dioxide out of the air for photosynthesis, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imperial.ac.uk\/news\/187327\/how-plants-carbon-affects-their-response\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">using it to generate<\/a> energy or, well, more tree.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The problem comes when the tree dies. Once they become deadwood, they\u2019re not only no longer taking carbon out of the atmosphere \u2013 they\u2019re actually releasing it. A <em>lot<\/em> of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurrently, 8 percent of the carbon stored in forests is stored in dead trees, so not in living trees,\u201d explained forest ecologist J\u00f6rg M\u00fcller, who was not involved in the new research, in a 2021 episode of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-021-02391-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nature podcast<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As part of a large team analyzing the decomposition of deadwood, M\u00fcller had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-021-03740-8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">helped reveal<\/a> the sheer scale of the carbon emissions released by these dead trees \u2013 incredibly, more than the amount released by fossil fuels each year. \u201cWe found out that the annual release of carbon from deadwood is about 115 percent of the carbon released by humans,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, it is a considerable part of the cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the question, though: can we do anything about that? Trees may be able to live for hundreds or even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/why-the-location-of-the-worlds-tallest-tree-is-a-secret-70759\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">thousands of years<\/a>, but just hoping that they all end up immortal from now on seems short-sighted as a climate solution. An alternative, however, may be to simply\u2026 bury it.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that\u2019s probably underselling it, to be fair. You have to bury it in the exact right way \u2013 or, as it\u2019s known in carbon capture circles, \u201cvault\u201d it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople tend to think, \u2018Who doesn\u2019t know how to dig a hole and bury some wood?\u2019\u201d said Ning Zeng, a professor in the University of Maryland\u2019s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science and lead researcher in the new analysis, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/1059477\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut think about how many wooden coffins were buried in human history. How many of them survived?\u201d he pointed out. \u201cFor a timescale of hundreds or thousands of years, we need the right conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And, thanks to the chance discovery back in 2013 of this ancient log \u2013 a find that Zeng described as \u201ckind of miraculous\u201d \u2013 we now have a better idea of what those conditions should be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the excavator pulled a log out of the ground and threw it over to us, the three ecologists that I had invited from McGill University immediately identified it as Eastern red cedar,\u201d Zeng said. Upon comparison with a freshly cut sample from the same species, the team found that the older log \u2013 nearly 4,000 years old, and preserved far longer than should be expected for a lump of cedar \u2013 had lost less than 5 percent of the carbon dioxide it once stored.<\/p>\n<p>So, what could have made this remarkably efficient carbon capture possible? The key appears to be in the type of soil covering the log: a clay soil, common to the area of Quebec where the discovery was made, which has especially low permeability. That meant it was able to protect the log from, well, just about anything that might help it decompose \u2013 not just insects and fungi, but even the oxygen itself.<\/p>\n<p>And it worked <em>incredibly<\/em> well. \u201cThe wood is nice and solid \u2013 you could probably make a piece of furniture out of it,\u201d Zeng said. \u201cYou could tell how well it was preserved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s really good news: because clay soil is pretty common, it means that wood vaulting could potentially become a low-cost way to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it\u2019s hardly a solution to the climate crisis on its own \u2013 but should the technique be optimized, the researchers reckon we could store up to 10 gigatonnes of CO<sub>2<\/sub> each year using this method. That is, coincidentally, around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41558-023-01604-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the amount needed<\/a> to limit global warming to below 1.5\u00b0C (2.7\u00b0F) \u2013 making this deadwood-burial idea probably worth looking into.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s quite an exciting discovery,\u201d Zeng said. \u201cThe urgency of climate change has become such a prominent issue, so there was even more motivation to get this analysis going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The paper is published in the journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.adm8133\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/this-random-3775-year-old-log-might-hold-one-secret-to-saving-the-planet-76172\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What can an ancient gnarly log tell us about safeguarding the future? According to a new analysis of one 3,775-year-old chunk of tree, potentially quite a bit \u2013 thanks to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=109635\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}