Resumen de Plant 'breath' seeds clouds, slows warming
The fragrant smell of the trees adds pleasure to a woodland walk. But the compounds that trees pump into the air have another benefit: they help cool the climate by encouraging clouds to form. Pauli Paasonen at the University of Helsinki in Finland and colleagues set up monitoring stations in 11 forests in Europe, North America, South Africa and Siberia. Over the course of a year, they tracked temperatures and measured levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC). As expected, VOC emissions rose with temperature, which led to more cloud forming than when conditions were cooler. The team calculates that these extra clouds have a small cooling effect globally, in line with predictions. But locally, they say, VOCs could cut warming by as much as 30%.
