Wanna Save The World? Make Sure You Plant The Right Tree
If you want to help, scientists across the country are saying these days, plant a tree. Better yet, work with your city to improve its urban forest.But here's the hard part.
We've all known for years that trees are good for the environment, soaking up air pollutants and greenhouse gases, and a little shade in the middle of what scientists are calling urban heat islands can't hurt. However, not all trees are the same. They all help to clear the air, in varying degrees, but many also contribute to air pollution by emitting volatile organic compounds, such as isoprene, which help form ozone, a health hazard.
Syracuse researchers found that if they could replant their city with trees that are great at sequestering carbon compounds, especially carbon dioxide, they could increase the removal of carbon by more than 300 percent. But they also found that air quality would actually suffer from an increase in volatile compounds.So they looked at mixing the forest, emphasizing trees that are good performers when it comes to carbon sequestration and don't emit a lot of junk. They came up with a list of 31 species, including American basswood, dogwood, Eastern white pine, Eastern red cedar, gray birch, red maple and river birch.
That combination, they found, would increase carbon sequestration by 86 percent, and reduce the emission of volatile compounds by 88 percent.
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