Trees are known for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus benefiting the climate. New research shows that they offer one more benefit. Microbes living in tree bark or in the wood itself remove atmospheric methane – a powerful greenhouse gas – on a scale equal to or above that of soil. This makes trees 10% more beneficial for climate overall than previously thought. The methane absorption was strongest in tropical forests, probably because microbes thrive in the warm, wet conditions found there.

Methane is responsible for around 30% of global warming, and emissions are currently rising fast, driven largely by human-related activities.

Until now, soil had been thought of as earth’s only terrestrial sink for methane, as soils are full of bacteria that absorb the gas and break it down for use as energy. But trees may be as important or more so. The study is the first to quantify the volume of atmospheric methane that, on a global scale, trees can remove – 24.6 to 49.9 million tonnes annually.

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Venezuela is the first country in modern history to lose all its glaciers, with the vanishing of its Humboldt glacier. By 2011, five of Venezuela’s six glaciers, located in the Andes Mountains, vanished. Humboldt melted faster than expected, and has shrunk from 450 hectares to less than two hectares, leading to its downgrade from a glacier to an ice field. The Venezuelan government has put in a thermal blanket in an attempt to protect the glacier from further melting.

Glaciers are melting due to warmer temperatures caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs). The melting of the Humboldt glacier was accelerated by El Niño (an abnormal warming of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean leading to warmer temperatures). Other glaciers across the world are shrinking fast, with two-thirds predicted to vanish by 2100 at current climate change trends.

India’s glaciers, too, are melting at unprecedented rates across the Hindu Kush Himalayan mountain ranges, and could lose up to 80% of their volume this century if GHG emissions are not drastically reduced.

Glaciers are a crucial source of freshwater for local communities, plants and animals. The cold water that runs off glaciers keeps downstream water temperatures cooler, which is crucial for many aquatic species to survive.

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