School of forestry and environmental studies

School Notes: School of the Environment
November/December 2012

Ingrid C. “Indy” Burke | http://environment.yale.edu

Diseased trees significant source of greenhouse gas

Diseased trees in forests may be a significant new source of methane that causes climate change, according to researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies inGeophysical Research Letters. Sixty trees sampled at Yale Myers Forest in northeastern Connecticut contained concentrations of methane that were as high as 80,000 times ambient levels. Normal air concentrations are less than 2 parts per million, but the Yale researchers found average levels of 15,000 ppm inside trees.

“These are flammable concentrations,” said Kristofer Covey, the study’s lead author and a PhD candidate at Yale. “Because the conditions thought to be driving this process are common throughout the world’s forests, we believe we have found a globally significant new source of this potent greenhouse gas.”

Red maple, an abundant species in North America, had the highest methane concentrations, but other common species, including oak, birch, and pine, were also producers of the gas. The rate of methane emissions was 3.1 times higher in the summer, suggesting that higher temperatures may lead to increasing levels of forest methane that, in turn, lead to ever-higher temperatures.

 

Professor honored for achievements

Paul Anastas, the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment and director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, and a pioneer in the design of environmentally friendly chemicals, has been awarded the 2012 Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award for “helping advance the biodiversity of life on planet Earth.” E. O. Wilson, the renowned Harvard professor of entomology and evolutionary biology for whom the honor is named, presented Anastas with the award on October 4.

Trained as a synthetic organic chemist, Anastas has focused his research on the design of safer chemicals, bio-based polymers, and new methodologies of chemical synthesis that are more efficient and less hazardous to the environment. A leading writer on the subjects of sustainability, green chemistry, and green engineering, he has published ten books, includingBenign by Design, Designing Safer Polymers, Green Engineering, and his seminal work with coauthor John Warner,Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice.

 

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