The NAU Review — Humans of NAU with Kimberly Higuera and more news

July 31, 2024

We all know healthy trees are important for a healthy planet. But we didn’t know just how important. A groundbreaking new study found that microbes that live in tree bark are sucking greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, making trees an even more critical part of combating climate change than scientists previously thought. NAU forest scientist Alexander Shenkin is the only U.S. partner on the study, which offers some good news for global policymakers.

In three recent publications, Regents’ professor Ted Schuur and other researchers looked at how a warming Arctic climate is impacting permafrost ecosystems—particularly their ability to store carbon. The researchers found that as they warm, these ecosystems release carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, which increases the rate of warming.