Seeing the Forest for the Microbes: 2022 YPS Grant Project Insight
Most people have heard about the human microbiome, but what about the microbiomes of trees? There’s a whole world inside trees that’s just being discovered. Part of that discovery story is the microbes in living trees that emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Understanding how much methane is emitted by trees is important for determining the climate benefits of preserving and planting forests. If people are planting trees to offset their carbon emissions, it’s important to ask: do carbon accounting estimates accurately capture forests’ climate benefits, or is there a hidden gap driven by methane released from within trees themselves?
Summer student Qespi T’ika Vizcarra Wood, freezing and grinding tree cores to extract microbial DNA.
This is one of the key questions that drove work on the 2022 YPS Grant project, “How does tree-mediated methane emission affect the climate mitigation potential of forests?”
“This is the biggest amount of living biomass in the world, and [the living wood of a tree] had never been explored microbially,” said Jordan Peccia, Thomas E. Golden, Jr. Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering. “It’s like we’re shining a light in a dark place, and we needed a specific machine to do that which was funded only through the Planetary Solutions grant.”
Improved knowledge about which types of trees or growth conditions emit less methane could lead to new forest management approaches and more accurate carbon accounting. Without YPS funding, the project––which has already resulted in a paper in Nature, with planning for future publications in the works––may not have been pursued.
“If it wasn’t for fellowships and these types of grants, grad school would have been a very different experience for me,” said Wyatt Arnold, who was a graduate student researcher on the project and is now the co-founder and CEO of fertilizer startup Prospect Growth. “Grants like this give you greater freedom to jump into something that’s a little more out there and can catalyze existing enthusiasm for a project. As students, it really helped keep us motivated and excited about the work in a way that let us be persistent, and that ultimately paid dividends in terms of publishing and knowledge generation.”
Beyond the science, the project also highlights how funding shapes the next generation of researchers by giving them hands-on experience leading projects and navigating the grant process.
“For grad students who want to lead a project––who are not used to applying to grants yet––this level of funding, the level of management, and having a really low barrier to entry is hugely helpful,” said Wyatt.
As carbon offset and ecosystem service programs continue to expand, knowledge developed from research like this will be essential for improving how forest-based solutions are designed and measured. A more complete understanding of methane emissions will help guide smarter planting choices, refine carbon offset options, and strengthen the credibility of nature-based climate solutions.
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Learn more about the YPS Grant Program.