Rainforest regrowth boosts carbon capture, study shows - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35492273
New-growth, or secondary, forests grow as a result of a major clearing of old-growth vegetation. The clearing could be the result of a natural event, such as a fire, or as a result of human activity, such as logging or farming.
In order to maximise access to sunlight, nutrients and water, new trees grow quickly. This means the plants sequester a much greater amount of carbon from the atmosphere, which it uses as part of the photosynthesis process that uses sunlight to produce the sugars the plant needs to grow.
The team found that in optimum conditions, new-growth vegetation could sequester up to 11 times as much carbon as old-growth forests.
However, the long established old-growth rainforests have locked away a vast quantity of carbon over the decades and centuries. Rainforests are the largest terrestrial carbon sinks on the planet. Deforestation is seen as one of the major drivers of emissions from human activities and is estimated to account for 20% of all emissions.