Surprise! The Bigger and Older Trees Grew Fastest and Trapped the Most Carbon

Tree measurement data from forests around the world shows that many trees do not slow in their growth rate as they get older and larger; instead, their growth keeps accelerating.In more than 400 tree species studied, the bigger and older specimens grew fastest and trapped the most carbon, the scientists found.

The study found out that the older trees are the most powerful features in the carbon apparatus that is the forest. Not only do older trees grow larger more quickly than do younger saplings, but they also suck in amounts of carbon at an extraordinary rate. The nearly 405 temperate and tropical tree species showed that for the majority of species, the physique growth rate increased nonstop with the tree’s size. So old, large trees do not simply act as carbon tanks but actually take in large carbon amounts when they are in comparison to trees of smaller sizes. A single enormous tree can increase the amount of carbon into the forest within one year as what is taken in by a middle size tree for its entire growth span up until that time.

This basically means that one old, big tree is able to remove the same amount of carbon out of the atmosphere in just one year that a middle sized tree has taken out in its entire life thus far. However, if that mid-sized tree is able to live to be an old tree, it too should start taking in the carbon as well and sending out oxygen.

In more than 400 tree species studied, the bigger and older specimens grew fastest and trapped the most carbon, the scientists found.

“In human terms, it is as if our growth just keeps accelerating after adolescence instead of slowing down,” Nathan Stephenson of the U.S. Geological Survey said of the findings, published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

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