Trees have an extra climate benefit thanks to methane-eating microbes

Microbes living in the bark of trees are absorbing methane from the air, making trees about 10 per cent better for the climate than previously thought.

Methane is a greenhouse gas that is responsible for about a quarter of human-caused global warming.

Scientists have already shown that some trees growing in water-logged soils can emit methane that was generated underground. But the presence of methane-eating microbes known as methanotrophs in tree bark suggests trees could also be a net sink for atmospheric methane.

Methanotrophs consume methane…