Genetically altered trees could reduce global warming

A new study has revealed that forests of genetically altered flora could sequester several billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year, and could help to reduce global warming.

The study outlined a variety of strategies for augmenting the processes that plants use to sequester carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into long-lived forms of carbon, first in vegetation and ultimately in soil.

Other possibilities included altering plants so that they could withstand the stresses of growing on marginal land in a better way, so that they yield improved bio-energy and food crops.

Such innovations could, in combination, boost substantially the amount of carbon that vegetation naturally extracts from air, according to the authors' estimates.

The researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory stressed that the use of genetically engineered plants for carbon sequestration is only one of many policy initiatives and technical tools that might boost the carbon sequestration already occurring in natural vegetation and crops.

The study was published in the October issue of BioScience.