It appears we have missed a few trees. A new survey of the world’s dryland habitats has found a massive amount of previously unreported forests. The newly discovered forests cover an area equivalent to about 50 percent of the size of the U.S. The discovery is good news for reversing global warming as it increases the estimates of total global forest carbon stocks. Although dryland biomes occupy more than 40 percent of the Earth’s land surface, these forests were previously difficult to spot because of the relatively low density of the trees. Technological advances have made it easier to accurately measure dryland forests as demonstrated in this survey.
Forgotten trees: Survey finds enough new forests to cover 50 percent of the U.S.
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