Even Small Forest Patches Can Help Fight Climate Change!

Climate change is caused by humans emitting polluting gases. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most important and well-known polluting gases we emit. Forests are carbon vacuum cleaners: via their leaves, trees take up carbon and store it in their wood, roots, and leaves. We found that forest edges, where it is warmer and sunnier, can store more carbon than the forest interior, where it is cooler and shadier. This is important, because the amount of forest edges has increased due to large forests being split up into small forest patches by roads, towns, or agriculture. In Europe, this extra carbon storage in forest edges is not usually considered important, but it represents the equivalent of a forest with an area of more than 1.4 million football (soccer) fields! To maximize carbon storage, we should not only protect small forests, but also plant new forests—even very small ones.