Sentences with phrase «dead plant matter»

Because fossil fuels, such as oil, are naturally formed from dead plant matter, they also contain a smaller ratio of carbon - 13 to carbon - 12.

It remains unclear whether tropical forests, such as those of the Amazon or Congo, produce the same effect, due to much faster decomposition of dead plant matter in these climes.

A cow doesn't make methane, bacteria in the cow's gut makes it, and similar soil bacteria and other organisms digest dead plant matter, if not eaten by the cow, to make methane and CO2.

The findings, published online this week in the journal Ecology, show that the type of plants growing on the surface of our peaty moorlands can change how quickly dead plant material is broken down, influencing the speed with which carbon from dead plant matter is released back into the air we breathe.

In nature, these fungi serve as a catalyst — speeding decomposition and ridding the planet of megatons of dead plant matter.

Laborious research in the 1960s by the late pioneering U.S. ecologist Eugene Odum seemed to indicate that forests achieve a balance between the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbed by growing trees and plants and the amount of CO2 released back into the atmosphere by the decomposition of dead plant matter.

The findings, published online this week in leading journal Ecology, show that the type of plants growing on the surface of our peaty moorlands can change how quickly dead plant material is broken down, influencing the speed with which carbon from dead plant matter is released back into the air we breathe.