Forests require diversity! A forest with different tree species from each other absorbs carbon dioxide better

Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Earl. What trees do you see around you? tall? Low? Are they all the same? Or are they different from each other, and belong to a wide variety of spectacular species?

Different forests differ in their degree of diversity: some boast a variety of different species of trees, while others (like forests The pines we all know well from Israel) mainly include one dominant species. It turns out that this difference is important: In a new Israeli study more diverse hair was found to be more effective when it comes to capturing and storing Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

These capabilities are of great importance: forests, which are our breathable air, in the full sense of the word, are one of the most important tools for reducing the climate crisis, because they absorb

As part of the new study, led by Ido Rog, a doctoral student in the laboratory Of Dr. Tamir Klein from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science and funded by the JNF, among others, the researchers collected many ecological and physiological data from 25 trees from 5 different species, within an area of ​​10 dunams in the Yishai forest near Beit Shemesh. These data were entered into a computerized model, which translated them into data on the amounts of water that the tree utilizes and the amount of carbon stored in it.

Hamsters accumulate about 130 grams more carbon per square meter than forests that are characterized by a dominant species. This is a gap that reaches up to 32 percent more carbon per square meter per year in diverse forests.

Division of Inter-Tribal Territories according to The researchers, the reason why the diverse forest captures and stores carbon on a larger scale is that it utilizes water better, and thus is able to perform more photosynthesis (i.e., use the energy of sunlight to convert the carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and materials from which the wood body is built): Diverse forests use 80-40 millimeters more water per meter per year than unisexual forests.

According to the study, one factor that allows the diverse forests to make better use of water is its existence. Of “territorial division” between tree species: Planting trees of different species, with different root systems, allows deep-rooted species to pump water from deeper layers of the soil, while other shallow-rooted species utilize the water in the upper soil layers. This is in comparison to a non-diverse forest, where trees with similar root depths compete for one layer of soil, while the water in other layers is not utilized.

The optimal water utilization in the diverse forest also occurs due to The parts of the tree above the ground: the trunk, the branches and the leaves. According to the study, a combined growth of relatively low trees, such as elm and oak, under the shade of tall trees such as pine and cypress, results in fuller coverage and utilization of the surface. In addition, the combination of tall and low trees in the forest reduces competition between trees of the same species.

According to Rog, better utilization of water allows the tree to perform more photosynthesis – and thus store more carbon Dioxide as part of the process. “When the tree is in a good water economy, it opens the small nostrils on the leaves, called peonies, and puts carbon dioxide into it – which turns into sugar in the process of photosynthesis,” he says. “When this happens, water vapor escapes from the small nozzles into the air and the plant loses water – therefore, when the plant is in water shortage it will prefer to close the nozzles.”

did not deal with the efficiency of the forest

One of the reasons why in some Israeli forests there is one dominant species is the planting policy adopted in the first decades of the state. “The purpose of planting in the forest was to maximize the productivity of the forest, and thus get as much wood material for construction as possible in the shortest possible time,” Rog explains. “We did not deal with the forest’s resistance to fires, the forest’s efficiency in terms of carbon storage or any other ecological question.”

Dr. Gilad Ostrovsky, Head of the KK Forestry and Forests Division To, confirms Rog’s remarks. “Speaking of the areas planted in the 1950s and 1960s, most of the forests were definitely same-sex,” he says.