Amazon: 1% of tree species store 50% of region’s carbon

About 1% of all the tree species in the Amazon account for half of the carbon locked in the vast South American rainforest, a study has estimated.

Although the region is home to an estimated 16,000 tree species, researchers found that just 182 species dominated the carbon storage process.

Amazonia is vital to the Earth’s carbon cycle, storing more of the element than any other terrestrial ecosystem.

The findings appear in the journal Nature Communications.

“Considering that the Amazon is massively important for the global carbon cycle and stores so much of the planet’s biomass, finding out just how that carbon is stored and produced is very important if we want to understand what might happen in the future in different environmental conditions,” explained co-author Sophie Fauset from the University of Leeds, UK.

The tropical forest covers an estimated 5.3 million sq km and holds 17% of the global terrestrial vegetation carbon stock.

 

Continue reading: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32497537