UMM, LAST’S MONTH’S STUDY IS NO LONGER OPERATIVE

Fragrance of pine forests helps to slow climate change (James Randerson, The Guardian, April 14, 2006)

The fresh fragrance released by trees in northern pine forests is a significant component in slowing climate change, according to research.

The particles that carry the forests' olfactory assault also help to cool the planet by bouncing energy from the sun back into space. Now researchers have worked out that the forests produce enough microscopic particles to load the atmosphere around them with 1,000-2,000 particles per cubic centimetre of air.

The discovery will help plug a big hole in climate change models and so help scientists to make more accurate predictions of global warming from greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

Hans-Christen Hansson of the Air Pollution Laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden, said airborne particles are a big unknown factor for climate scientists. "We are afraid we have totally misjudged the trend of climate change because the particles are not in the models in a comprehensive way."

The particles, called monoterpenes, give pine and spruce forests their characteristic aroma. They either affect climate directly by bouncing sunlight back into space or by seeding clouds, which do the same thing. "That gives us a very big uncertainty for projection of the effects of greenhouse gases," he added.[...]

The team studied particles generated by the so-called boreal forest. This occurs between 50 and 60 degrees north and covers swaths of Alaska, Canada, Siberia and Europe, a total of 15m square kilometres. "Given the large global coverage of boreal forest, this could have really big implications for climate," said a team member, Peter Tunved.

And just when our friends at The Guardian had us all excited about the coming Canadian banana.