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 the University of Cambridge found a new type of wood that offers a viable solution for carbon sequestration. According to the researchers, tulip tree branches have the ability to capture and store carbon efficiently, providing a way to combat carbon pollution.
What makes this finding so interesting, however, is that tulip tree branches perform carbon sequestration well, even though they don't fall into a traditional hardwood or softwood category. Unlike their hardwood relatives, tulip tree branches have larger microfibrils — long fibers that sit along the cell wall.
The researchers found that this feature supports tulip trees' ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Understanding the wood structure of tulip trees and how it relates to carbon sequestration could be a key to developing carbon capture solutions.
"This new wood ultrastructure might be better suited to carbon storage which makes it an interesting case study to identify approaches to increasing carbon capture in plantation forests," Dr. Jan Łyczakowski from Jagiellonian University told Interesting Engineering. "We hypothesize that this could be driven by differences in the biochemistry of wood. Potentially in the structure of hemicelluloses that make it."
By studying different trees and their carbon storage capabilities, scientists are helping combat rising global temperatures and extreme weather events. As temperatures around the world rise, the severity of weather events also increases, resulting in longer heat waves, intense droughts, and more devastating hurricanes, all of which can cause water and food shortages in the surrounding local communities.
However, when trees absorb carbon from the air, they remove harmful pollutants from the atmosphere, decreasing the amount of carbon warming the globe.
Moving forward, the team of scientists aims to explore how to replicate the wood chemistry of tulip trees to create larger microfibrils in other tree species, which in turn can help increase carbon storage efficiency.
"This could allow us to breed super-carbon capturing cultivars of other, more frequently planted, forestry trees," Łyczakowski told Interesting Engineering.
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