As any camping enthusiast will tell you, nothing quite describes the scent of that first refreshing breath of air they inhale upon waking in the middle of the forest. According to a recent study showing evidence that plants moderate global warming, there might in fact be a scientific explanation for the unusual characteristics of the atmospheric air experienced by campers.

Researchers from the University of Helsinki and the IIADA recently uncovered an ingenious feedback loop that exists between plants and higher atmospheric temperatures. How does it work? Plants moderate global warming through biological aerosols that originate from plants and – via atmospheric oxidation – stick to atmospheric aerosols, forming larger droplets that reflect sunlight and form storm clouds, thus decreasing temperatures.

In regards to evidence showing that plants moderate global warming, IIASA researcher Pauli Paasonen noted that, “Plants, by reacting to changes in temperature, also moderate these changes… Everyone knows the scent of the forest, that scent is made up of these gases.”

Although this amazing mechanism is presentlyonly able to mitigate only 1% of climate warming, the implications that plants moderate global warming is huge since future research can now focus exclusively the effects that such natural aerosols have on climate change, although many of their effects are currently scientifically uncertain.

Research highlighting how plants moderate global warming helps climatologists forge ahead into previously undiscovered frontiers of global warming and climate change. By having greater insight into the specific mechanisms involved in global warming, ongoing research can be aimed at both the construction and deployment of effective countermeasures.

– Brian Turner

Source: Science Daily
Photo: Classic Road Trip