Tree Bark Can Remove Methane Emissions From the Atmosphere, Study Finds

Trees aren’t just important for carbon sequestration. According to a new study, trees can also help remove methane from the atmosphere through their bark.

Researchers determined that some tree bark contains microbes that can take up methane from the atmosphere at a rate similar to the sequestration power of soil. The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature.

“The main ways in which we consider the contribution of trees to the environment is through absorbing carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, and storing it as carbon,” Vincent Gauci, lead researcher of the study and a professor at the University of Birmingham, said in a press release. “These results, however, show a remarkable new way in which trees provide a vital climate service.”

The team analyzed methane exchange between the atmosphere and different heights of trees in tropical forests in the Amazon rainforest and Panama, temperate forests in Oxfordshire, UK, and boreal forests in Sweden. They found the greatest methane absorption in tropical forests, which offer optimal conditions for microbes.

Researchers used tools to measure gases around the tree trunks, Energy Voice reported. They found that trees may emit small amounts of methane lower on the tree, close to the soil, but higher up the trunk, there is a greater exchange of methane and the trees take in methane.

While methane doesn’t have as big of an impact in the long term as carbon dioxide emissions, it is still a powerful greenhouse gas that impacts our planet. As the Environmental Defense Fund explained, methane emissions are around 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide for the first 20 years they are released into the atmosphere. Methane has contributed to around 30% of global warming since the Industrial Revolution, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated in its Global Methane Tracker 2024 report.

The new findings revealed that preserving and restoring forests could have even bigger benefits than previously thought. The research team estimated 10% higher climate benefits from the methane absorption by tropical and temperate trees.

“The Global Methane Pledge, launched in 2021 at the COP26 climate change summit aims to cut methane emissions by 30 percent by the end of the decade,” Gauci said. “Our results suggest that planting more trees, and reducing deforestation surely must be important parts of any approach towards this goal.”

As a next step, the researchers plan to investigate whether deforestation has contributed to increasing amounts of methane in the atmosphere.