Researchers explain gases emitted by plants have sun-dimming effect

Apr 29, 2013 11:35 GMT  ·  By

A team of researchers writing in the journal Nature Geoscience explain that, according to their investigations, plants help offset the effects of climate change and global warming by emitting gases that have a sun-dimming effects.

This conclusion was reached after analyzing the way in which 11 different forest sites spread across the world behaved when exposed to increased temperatures.

Thus, it appears that, whenever temperatures soar above a given limit, plants take up the habit of releasing gases whose chemical make-up makes it possible for them to be carried around by local winds.

“Everyone knows the scent of the forest. That scent is made up of these gases,” reads a statement issued by researcher Ari Asmi, currently working with the University of Helsinki.

As they float about, the particles released by plants help breed water droplets, which later on get together and form clouds.

These clouds are the ones responsible for offsetting the effects of global warming by acting as sunshades and reflecting sunlight back into space.

Daily Mail reports that the plants' ability to tackle climate change and global warming varies depending on how forests are distributed on a global scale.

More precisely, the researchers claim that, all things considered, the gases emitted by plants stand to offset roughly 1% of the warming occurring worldwide.

On the other hand, vast forests such as the ones currently found in Siberia, Canada or the Nordic regions can offset local warming by as much as 30%, the same source informs us.

“This is another reason why we should conserve and protect forests,” stated Dominick Spracklen, a University of Leeds researcher who did not take part in carrying out this study.

Despite the plants' ability to create these so-called sunshades in order to keep excess sunlight at bay, several researchers fear that the damage caused to the environment by human-induced pollution more than outweighs any of the benefits brought forth by forests worldwide.