Logged Forests May Be Carbon Emitters for YearsIf you’ve ever been offered the opportunity to donate money to plant a tree to offset a purchase, you’ve probably guessed that trees naturally store carbon. Forests are an invaluable source of carbon storage around the world; one would assume that forests that have been cut down but are regrowing trees are also regaining their capacity to store carbon. Tropical forests are some of the world’s most important carbon sinks: Research has found that the world’s tropical forests contain around one-quarter of the carbon stored on land. The unlogged forests the team measured were either carbon-neutral or small carbon sinks. But the areas that had been logged recently were actually carbon sources — they emitted more carbon than they stored, despite the new trees growing back.
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