Diseased Trees New Source of Climate Gas

Diseased Trees New Source of Climate Gas

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Diseased trees in forests may be a significant new source of methane that causes climate change, according to new research. The study was conducted by researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Sixty trees sampled at Yale Myers Forest in northeastern Connecticut contained concentrations of methane that were as high as 80,000 times ambient levels. Normal air concentrations are less than 2 parts per million, but the Yale researchers found average levels of 15,000 parts per million inside trees.