| 1% of Tree species in Amazon store 50% of the region’s carbon!
The Amazon rainforest is home to an estimated 16,000 tree species and researchers found that just 182 species dominate the carbon storage process. It is vital to the Earth’s carbon cycle, storing more of the element than any other terrestrial ecosystem. The tropical forest covers an estimated 5.3 million sq km and holds 17% of the global terrestrial vegetation carbon stock. As trees grow larger, they develop more biomass, which contains carbon. So the larger the tree, the greater quantity of carbon locked within its wood. As trees are long-lived organisms, this means the carbon is removed from the atmosphere for decades, if not centuries. |