An exciting new scientific discovery offers a promising way to combat rising global temperatures, according to a recent article published in Interesting Engineering.
Scientists from Jagiellonian University and Cambridge University have discovered a new type of wood that offers a viable solution for carbon sequestration. According to the researchers, tulip tree branches can efficiently absorb and store carbon, offering a way to combat carbon pollution.
What makes this finding so interesting, however, is that tulip tree branches sequester carbon well, even though they fall into neither the traditional category of hardwoods nor softwoods. Unlike their hardwood relatives, tulip tree branches have larger microfibrils – long fibers that sit along the cell wall.
The researchers found that this property supports the ability of tulip trees to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Understanding the wood structure of tulip trees and its relationship to carbon sequestration could be a key to developing carbon capture solutions.
“This new wood ultrastructure may be better suited for carbon storage, making it an interesting case study to identify approaches to increase carbon sequestration in plantation forests,” Dr. Jan Łyczakowski of the Jagiellonian University told Interesting Engineering. “We suspect that this may be due to differences in the biochemistry of the wood. Possibly in the structure of the hemicelluloses it is made of.”
By studying different trees and their ability to store carbon, scientists are helping to combat global temperature rise and extreme weather events. As temperatures rise around the world, the severity of weather events also increases, leading to longer heat waves, intense droughts and more devastating hurricanes that can cause water and food shortages in surrounding communities.
Watch now: These futuristic gas stations could completely change life as an electric car owner
However, when trees absorb carbon from the air, they remove harmful pollutants from the atmosphere, reducing the amount of carbon that warms the globe.
In the future, the team of scientists would like to investigate how the wood chemistry of tulip trees can be replicated in order to produce larger microfibrils in other tree species, which in turn can contribute to more efficient carbon storage.
“This could allow us to breed varieties of other, more commonly grown forest trees that are particularly good at sequestering carbon,” Łyczakowski told Interesting Engineering.
Subscribe to our free newsletter for good news And useful tipsand don’t miss this cool list of simple ways you can help yourself and the planet at the same time.
