{"id":13486,"date":"2021-05-12T11:21:42","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T15:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/news\/?p=13486"},"modified":"2023-12-11T13:53:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T18:53:58","slug":"study-finds-ghost-forest-tree-farts-contribute-to-greenhouse-gas-emissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/study-finds-ghost-forest-tree-farts-contribute-to-greenhouse-gas-emissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Finds Ghost Forest \u2018Tree Farts\u2019 Contribute to Greenhouse Gas Emissions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Laura Oleniacz, NC State University News<\/strong><\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Contacts:<\/em>
\nMelinda Martinez, mmarti13@ncsu.edu<\/a>
\nMarcelo Ard\u00f3n, mlardons@ncsu.edu<\/a>
\nLaura Oleniacz, NC State News Services, ljolenia@ncsu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

Melinda Martinez was a 2019 North Carolina Sea Grant-North Carolina Space Grant fellow and will soon start a position as a Mendenhall Fellow with the U.S. Geological Survey. Recently, she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation at NC State University.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A new study from North Carolina State University finds that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from standing dead trees in coastal wetland forests \u2013 colloquially called \u201ctree farts\u201d \u2013 need to be accounted for when assessing the environmental impact of so-called \u201cghost forests.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0study<\/a>, researchers compared the quantity and type of GHG emissions from dead tree snags to emissions from the soil. While snags did not release as much as the soils, they did increase GHG emissions of the overall ecosystem by about 25 percent. Researchers say the findings show snags are important for understanding the total environmental impact of the spread of dead trees in coastal wetlands, known as ghost forests, on GHG emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though these standing dead trees are not emitting as much as the soils, they\u2019re still emitting something, and they definitely need to be accounted for,\u201d said the study\u2019s lead author\u00a0Melinda Martinez<\/a>, a graduate student in forestry and environmental resources at NC\u00a0State. \u201cEven the smallest fart counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the study, researchers measured emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide from dead pine and bald cypress snags in five ghost forests on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula in North Carolina, where\u00a0researchers have been tracking<\/a> the spread of ghost forests due to sea level rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe transition from forest to marsh from these disturbances is happening quickly, and it\u2019s leaving behind many dead trees,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cWe expect these ghost forests will continue to expand as the climate changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using portable gas analyzers, researchers measured gases emitted by snags and from soils in each forest in 2018 and 2019. Overall average emissions from soils were approximately four times higher than average emissions from snags in both years. And while snags did not contribute as much as soils, researchers said they do contribute significantly to emissions.<\/p>\n

In addition to finding that soils emit more GHGs than snags, the work lays the foundation for the researchers\u2019 ongoing work to understand the role snags are playing in emissions \u2014 whether they prevent emissions, like corks, or release them like straws. That is an area of future research they\u2019re currently continuing to explore.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off this research wondering: Are these snags straws or corks?\u201d said study co-author\u00a0Marcelo Ard\u00f3n<\/a>, associate professor of forestry and environmental sciences at NC\u00a0State. \u201cAre they facilitating the release from soils, or are they keeping the gases in? We think that they act as straws, but as a filtered straw. They change those gases, as the gases move through the snags.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study, \u201cDrivers of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Standing Dead Trees in Ghost Forests,\u201d was published online in\u00a0Biogeochemistry<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>on May 10, 2021. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation under grant DEB1713592 and a 2019 North Carolina Sea Grant\/SpaceGrant Fellowship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Access the study<\/a>, \u201cDrivers of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Standing Dead Trees in Ghost Forests,\u201d in Biogeochemistry.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

the original NC State News\u00a0media release<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dead trees don’t contribute as much as soils, but they should still be accounted for, researchers say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":19292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1405,1397,1391],"tags":[],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"displayCategory":null,"yoast_head":"\nStudy Finds Ghost Forest \u2018Tree Farts\u2019 Contribute to Greenhouse Gas Emissions - North Carolina Sea Grant<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/study-finds-ghost-forest-tree-farts-contribute-to-greenhouse-gas-emissions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ghost Forest \u2018Tree Farts\u2019 Contribute to Greenhouse Gas Emissions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The new study found that dead coastal trees are more like straws than corks.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/study-finds-ghost-forest-tree-farts-contribute-to-greenhouse-gas-emissions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Carolina Sea Grant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-12T15:21:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-11T18:53:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katie Mosher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Ghost Forest \u2018Tree Farts\u2019 Contribute to Greenhouse Gas Emissions\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The new study found that dead coastal trees are more like straws than corks.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katie Mosher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/study-finds-ghost-forest-tree-farts-contribute-to-greenhouse-gas-emissions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/study-finds-ghost-forest-tree-farts-contribute-to-greenhouse-gas-emissions\/\",\"name\":\"Study Finds Ghost Forest \u2018Tree Farts\u2019 Contribute to Greenhouse Gas Emissions - 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