Lightning kills 320M trees each year
9 months ago
- #trees
- #lightning
- #climate-change
- Lightning destroys around 320 million trees annually, not including losses from wildfires.
- Previous studies were limited to field observations, but TUM used global vegetation models and lightning datasets.
- Lightning-struck trees contribute 0.77–1.09 billion tons of CO₂ emissions yearly, nearing wildfire-related plant emissions.
- Wildfires still release far more CO₂ (5.85 billion tons) annually than lightning-struck trees.
- Climate models predict increased lightning frequency, making this a pressing issue for climatology studies.