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nature
Is it true that smaller forest fires can help in the fight against the climate crisis?
Under certain conditions, smaller forest fires can be a means of combating the climate crisis, researchers from the University of Cambridge have found
© Ethan Swope / Picture Alliance
Forest fires not only destroy flora and fauna, they also release climate-damaging carbon dioxide. Under certain conditions, however, the flames stimulate processes through which the gas can be bound, researchers found out,
Is it true that smaller forest fires can help in the fight against the climate crisis?
Yes. Smaller forest fires can help store carbon dioxide instead of releasing it. The surprising reason: Unless the flames generate temperatures that are too high, they stimulate tree roots to grow, which causes CO2 binds. And they leave behind coal that stores the gas permanently. That’s what researchers at the University of Cambridge found. Such forest fires would even be a means of fighting the climate crisis.
A detailed article on fire ecology and modern forest firefighting can be found in the new GEO magazine (issue 03/2022), which will be published on February 11, 2022. Here you will also find GEO editions that have already been published in the online shop.
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Source: www.eurekalert.org