Loss Of Vegetation Can Release Up To 146 Billion Metric Tons Of CO2

A new study published in “Nature Communications” suggests that the loss of plant species due to climate change and human activities could release vast amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere and accelerate climate change further more. The researchers estimate that losing plant diversity worldwide could release up-to 146 billion metric tons of carbon from vegetation, equivalent to more than 12 years of global car emissions.

The researchers used computer modeling to estimate that losing plant diversity around the world could release between 7 billion and 146 billion metric tons of carbon from vegetation.

According to the lead author Sarah Weiskopf, a research ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey – the magnitude of loss of vegetation even surprised him. They found that biodiversity hotspots in the Amazon Rainforest, Central Africa and Southeast Asia could be hit hardest by both species loss and biodiversity-driven carbon storage declines, as these regions have high species richness and large vegetation carbon stocks.

For example-New Guinea has 13,634 species of plants from 1742 genera and 264 families. That gives New Guinea, the world’s second largest island, the highest plant diversity of any island on Earth, surpassing Madagascar (11,832 species), Borneo (11,165 species), and Sumatra (8,391 species). More than two-thirds of its plants are endemic, meaning they are only found on the island. But time may be running short for New Guinea’s biodiversity, since 2002 the island lost 1.15 million hectares of primary forest and nearly 2 million hectares of total tree cover.

The writer of this article is Dr. Seema Javed, an environmentalist & a communications professional in the field of climate and energy