Dead Trees and Greenhouse Gases Emitted From (for something like that)?

Question

I've read in a few places that rotting trees emit methane and CO2( both are greenhouse gases).

I was just wondering what else they emitted. I'm curious if there is a surplus of Oxygen, a deficit, or that we break even.

Hippie Environmental Alarmists need not preach the danger of throwing plastic cups on the ground.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

>>>>I've read in a few places that rotting trees emit methane
>>>and CO2( both are greenhouse gases).

That is perfectly correct. A tree only tie sup carbon for as long as it is alive, and itonly basorbs carbon as long as it is actively growing. Mature trees and mature forests don't produce any oxygen or absorb any carbon because the parts that are shed re-release just as much carbon as was absorbed.

>>>>I was just wondering what else they emitted.

Literally hundreds of thousand sof different chemicals from recalcitrant humic components to highly volatile and short-lived terpenes, alcohols and hydrocarbons.

>>>> I'm curious if there is a surplus of Oxygen, a deficit, or
>>>>that we break even.

Trees don't actually produce any oxygen at all over any menaingful timesacle. A seedling will produce some oxygen while it is actively growing, but then it ceases production once it reaches maturity and when it dies it resorbs all the osygen it ever produced. So the net oxygen production for a tree is zero.

If we killed and burned every single plant in the ground it would have no measurable effect on oxygen levels. What little oxygen production does occur is almost totally restricted to algae in the oceans. Nothing whatsoever to do with trees.

Answer 2

I am the semi hippie alarmist

Earth is for the most part a closed system.
Except for the energy from the sun nothing much enters the planet
( The exception any sun particles from the solar wind the dust from space and the stray comet or meteor ) [ Also: nothing leaves unless it can escape the force of gravity]

It is called the carbon cycle because some carbon is take in to create something needed , it is used , and then eventually release it.
It can be released during its life ( plants 'exhale' a little CO2 at night ) but plants like trees lock up fair amounts of carbon in there living structure.
When the tree dies that carbon will be used by other plants ( like that tree did to get part of its carbon.
It is a cycle of use and reuse.
( to the best of current knowledge carbon exists and is essential to all living organisms. That is to say there is no living organism that does not have carbon in it nor has there ever been any living organism on this planet that existed without carbon to the best of current knowledge )

As I remember the methane (CH4) is a product of digestion and is released by the animals that are eating the tree.

The atmosphere is composed mostly of nitrogen (more than 75%) oxygen (less than 25% ) and argon (about 1%) with all of the other things making up a lot less than 1 percent ( maybe less than one tenth of a percent) .

The many other compounds that are released are all organic in nature and in the bigger picture are used by some organism.
Nature doesn't waste much because it naturally wants to fill every niche and use every available resource.

On the alarmist hippie thing . Do you give any thought to the fact that you live on the only planet in the solar system (therefore the only planet within 4.5 light years) that can support life as you know it with out some artificial means.

Answer 3

Organic matter like dead trees will release methane and CO2 into the atmosphere especially when heated. The methane and CO2 they release came from CO2 that was originally in the atmosphere.

During photosynthesis trees exchange water for CO2 and they use the CO2 to make sugars and other things. When the sugars break down after the tree dies, some of it will turn back into CO2, and some apparently will even turn into methane (though I don't know if the mechanism is actually well understood).

Although there is plenty of Oxygen for the foreseeable future, Oxygen levels have been consistently declining.

Answer 4

The wood is actually broken down by bacteria, fungi, insects, and other organisms. Wood-pecker birds prefer dead trees to make their "nests" in so they are declining due to the fact that we view dead trees as an eye sore and cut them down. So eventually the carbon found in trees is digested or broken down by other organisms for nutrients or housing or whatever. Does some of it get released as green house gasses, eventually.... yes. But it's all part of the carbon cycle. This cycle is really the answer to your question because all carbon follows this process, it just takes billions of years for some carbon to move.

Answer 5

My money is on us adapting, not that we should be wasteful or burning down forests for fun. The main thing is birth control, if China, India and Africa double or triple in size it'll feel like a small dust bin of a planet after a couple of generations.

Answer 6

dead trees in the natural state decompose in to organice material that enriched the soil only if fire is added do the emite methane gas and carbon dioxide

Answer 7

i think it balances out on the natural causes of greenhouse gas, after all plants use co2

Answer 8

i cant believe how much nonsense can people think up and offer as an answer to this question. So lets take it from the beginning:

FIRSTLY: photosynthesis means creation of organic matter form carbon dioxide from air. this process releases oxygen.

SECONDLY logically, when organic matter is decomposed - BY ANY PROCESS - by combustion, digestion, by rotting in presence of oxygen, by respiration (all organisms do that all the time - it is using the organic matter of the plant or animal body to produce free energy to maintain the body) oxygen is used up (lost from air) and carbon dioxide (among others ) is produced So at night plants only respire, while at daytime they photosynthetize and respire - also parts that are not green - like roots - cant photosynthetize but can only respire). so when the plant is growing, it means that the process of photosynthesis is overweighing the respiration. when plant is loosing mass, as it may happen during poor conditions - it is vice versa, it respires more. so: of course that trees produce oxygen when they grow, during photosyntresis. so if a tree has grown from tiny seed to big tree, the NET balance is in favour of photosynthesis and oxygen production. then the tree dies and as it rots or is burned the carbon from itsbody is turned into carbon dioxide - a cycle

remember - not only when the tree is burned, but also when it is left to rot - it releases carbon dioxide. Somebody said that it releases carbon dioxide only when burning, that is nonsense. of course the spectrum of gasses formed is different in burning than in rotting.

THIRDLY the whole issue about greenhouse gasses is about the fact that as we need energy for production of electricity in power plants, energy to produce all the gadgets that we use, as we need gasoline to be burned in cars as we need our waste to be burned or left to rot, ETC ETC ETC so all this produces suddenly far more carbon dioxide than if we lived like cavemen or animals. so the balance is gradually shifted - the levels of carbon dioxide in air goes gradually up.
(the total percentage of carbon dioxide is quite small, while the percentage of oxygen is some 20%, so that is why the disrupted balance can be seen for carbon dioxide quite clearly while we dont see any significant diference in oxygen %in air, no deficit of oxygen, and of course no "surplus" of it - maybe this is source for the mistake of somebody who thinks that trees dont porduce any oxygen at all. SO WHAT WE SEE IS SURPLUSE OF CARBON DIOXIDE) and we start to worry abou that.

Many people ask me to explain the thing on renewable sources, so maybe you want to know it too: Why is it better to get energy and fuel from renewable rather than from fossile source, when burning both means production of carbon dioxide: So when your car runs on diesel or bio-diesel or when coal is burned in power plants rather than organic waste, the carbon dioxide is released in all cases- no difference in that. but if the diesel is made from petroleum, it means that the carbon in it comes from photosynthesis that happened in prehistoric times. but if biodiesel is made from wood chips or similar biomass waste or from canola, the carbon dioxide is just returned to air where it was till the e.g. canola took it from air by photosynthesis. so the net balance is zero. the same goes for burning coal versus burning biomass pellets or wood for heating houses. get the difference?

i hope it helped you, sorry for typos