LONDON, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Mature forests play a crucial role in combating climate change, according to new findings from the first phase of a 15-year research program led by the University of Birmingham.
Published in Nature Climate Change earlier this week, the research highlights the critical role of mature forests as long-term carbon stores and natural climate solutions. It challenges the idea that older, mature forests are incapable of responding to increasing levels of carbon dioxide.
Rob MacKenzie, the inaugural director of the university's Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview: "There has been an ongoing debate about the extent to which mature trees can capture and store carbon. Our new study also addresses whether this carbon uptake will continue under future atmospheric conditions."
"The implications are that temperate forests can continue to absorb excess carbon dioxide, making climate change slightly less severe than it would otherwise be," MacKenzie added.
The first phase of the research transformed a forest of 180-year-old, 26-meter-tall oak trees in central England into a crucial outdoor laboratory for the program. Meanwhile, a parallel facility near Sydney is studying hotter and drier forests, providing insights into subtropical and Southern temperate Mediterranean climates. Additionally, a new facility in the Amazon rainforest is offering a window into the dynamics of tropical forests.
The program involves collaboration with academics from other universities in the United Kingdom, as well as researchers from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Pakistan.
"We will spend the next seven years of the experiment closely examining all aspects of the forest's nutritional balance and food web dynamics. Understanding the full nutritional ecosystem of the forest and how all organisms interact is essential for predicting how forests will perform in the future," MacKenzie said.
"We believe these results, which come at about the halfway point of our 15-year experiment, will be invaluable for policymakers worldwide as they tackle the complexities of climate change," he added. ■