Massive accumulations of deadwood in Canada can release millions of tons of CO₂
The world’s largest river log deposit in the Mackenzie River stores about 3.4 million tons of carbon, which could be released as a result of global warming.
Largest store of carbon: Dead trees the size of Manhattan store millions of tons of carbon in the Mackenzie River Delta.
Photo: Alicia Centrowski (Michigan Tech University)
At the mouth of the Mackenzie River is a huge pile of dead driftwood, covering the size of Manhattan: these logs of 1,300-year-old trees, totaling 3.4 million tons. Carbon. This corresponds to the amount emitted by 2.5 million cars in a year. Scientists led by Alicia Centrowski, head of research at Michigan Technological University, discovered this. A new study found.
The river is bordered along its course by large coniferous forests. As a result, large amounts of LW reach estuaries along Canada’s Arctic coast each year. Because of the cold and dry climate, the tree there can survive for centuries or even thousands of years without decaying. Because wood is such a carbon-rich material, accumulated driftwood naturally stores such large amounts of carbon. CO₂ sink.
Global warming and sea level rise may accelerate the decomposition of these large amounts of deadwood. Because Arctic permafrost regions currently store more carbon than the entire atmosphere, climate researchers are increasingly turning to this natural store of CO₂.
Satellite imagery and machine learning
To more accurately determine the amount of wood in the Mackenzie River Delta, the researchers used satellite images and drone images and computer models to calculate the exact amount of deadwood in an area of 51 square kilometers. Scientists working with Centrowski found more than 400,000 pieces of wood in the delta, more than a meter long and 10 cm thick. The largest deposit alone stores more than seven tons of carbon. Because a significant portion of dead tree trunks are buried in land or underwater, the amount of carbon stored doubles, Centrowski said. to the science portal Phys.org.
Most of the transported timber accumulates at the mouth of the Mackenzie River: a satellite image of the delta.
Photo: Alamy
The role of deadwood as a carbon sink is poorly understood, geoscientist Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva from the University of Lausanne explained to Phys.org: “There’s been a lot of research on carbon cycles in water and sediments, but we haven’t done that. We haven’t focused on wood until recently. It’s a very young research area. It’s a field that’s growing very quickly. It’s important to study wood in terms of carbon cycles, but it’s also important to understand how these natural river systems work in general and how rivers absorb and distribute wood.”
Deadwood accounts for only a small fraction of carbon storage
The Mackenzie River Delta is a carbon storage “hotspot” due to its carbon-rich soils, which researchers say contain about 30 billion tons of carbon. Frozen driftwood contains only a fraction of the stored carbon. Yet this is relevant, as Centrowski emphasizes: “Catchment changes such as deforestation or damming, and climate change precipitation patterns and warming will reduce tree landings and storage.” Through the studies, the researchers also found that most of the deadwood studied in the Mackenzie River Delta began to grow after 1950: it remains there for an average of 70 years, before it finally decays and is washed into the ocean or even younger. tree
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