Forest regeneration projects failing to offset carbon emissions

Forest regeneration projects that have received tens of millions of carbon credits and dominate Australia's carbon offset scheme have had negligible impact on woody vegetation cover and carbon sequestration, new research ...

Moths big and small are vanishing from southern US cities

Insects of all stripes are in the midst of a vanishing act, a catastrophic sleight-of-hand occurring so rapidly that scientists can't keep up. Things get even trickier when you consider that insects have a complex life cycle ...

What your fruit bowl reveals about climate breakdown

Spring arrived in style on March 26 2021 in Kyoto, Japan, as cherry trees reached the peak of their bloom. This marked the earliest recorded date when most flowers have opened in a series of annual records dating back to ...

Climate change threatens resilience of Sri Lankan rainforests

Tropical ecosystems store over half of the world's above-ground carbon in their biomass, making them critically important in the global fight against climate change. As carbon dioxide levels continue to rise in the atmosphere, ...

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Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to 6 m; some authors set a minimum of 10 cm trunk diameter (30 cm girth). Woody plants that do not meet these definitions by having multiple stems and/or small size, are called shrubs. Compared with most other plants, trees are long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old and growing to up to 115 m (379 ft) high.

Trees are an important component of the natural landscape because of their prevention of erosion and the provision of a weather-sheltered ecosystem in and under their foliage. Trees also play an important role in producing oxygen and reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as well as moderating ground temperatures. They are also elements in landscaping and agriculture, both for their aesthetic appeal and their orchard crops (such as apples). Wood from trees is a building material, as well as a primary energy source in many developing countries. Trees also play a role in many of the world's mythologies (see trees in mythology).

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA