Aha! Scientists, usually international, are constantly claiming that tropical forests and oceans are the main means to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the contributors to global warming.

But… researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States, and McGill University, Canada, found that temperate forests—such as those filled with pine trees, in North America—can store much more carbon then they used to think.

The researchers did a study comparing how much carbon was held by the forests of the state of Wisconsin. Despite the activities of the logging industry, they still hold approximately 2/3 of the carbon that used to circulate before the European settlement!

The researchers believe that those trees have the potential to store at least twice as much as they used to think. The research considered the carbon accumulated in tree trunks and crowns, without counting what was stored in roots and in the soil. The study has been published by PNA, an American scientific magazine.

In Europe and North America, tropical forests were exploited by the European and now they’ve been replaced by agriculture. Maybe this research will encourage reforestation practices and perhaps, make Americans and Europeans admit that they have played a direct role in the destruction of the environment, who knows?

“We often forget the invisible services, like climate regulation, that ecosystems provide to us for free, says Jeanine Rhemtulla, one of the researchers. “But this will need to change. We need to find ways to meet our immediate needs without compromising critical services over the long term,” she added. To learn more, click here and read the webpage of the American university. In English.

Note: The Diário de Pernambuco newspaper published an interesting piece about a Nasa research. The space agency simulated how Earth would be like without the ozone layer and found that our skin would be burnt within less than half an hour! Read here. And, oh… On the 16th of April Xis-Xis will be moving to Scienceblogs Brasil! Just wait.