Tree Bark Removes Climate-Warming Methane From Atmosphere: Study

While trees are well known for sucking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, researchers have discovered they offer one more important benefit: They can act as a net sink of methane, another gas that harms the planet.

That means trees can absorb 10% more greenhouse gases than previously thought, according to a study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.

“It’s a big deal at the global scale,” said Vincent Gauci, the study’s lead author and a professor at the University of Birmingham. As methane can heat the planet more than 28 times faster than CO2 over a century, its removal ...