AFAIK (I’m not a botanist) it’s true of many larger trees that they use more oxygen than they produce and emit more CO2 than they consume. It’s the biosphere that the large trees support that does a lot of the carbon sinking - mosses, ferns, vines, etc.
As a rule of thumb, the greater the ratio of woody mass to leafy mass the more the ratio tilts away from being a carbon sink, as the whole lifeform has to undergo aerobic respiration but only the leaves participate in photosynthesis.
That’s my understanding too. The carbon sink bit has to do with burying the plant matter before all of its carbon has had a chance to react with oxygen
AFAIK (I’m not a botanist) it’s true of many larger trees that they use more oxygen than they produce and emit more CO2 than they consume. It’s the biosphere that the large trees support that does a lot of the carbon sinking - mosses, ferns, vines, etc.
As a rule of thumb, the greater the ratio of woody mass to leafy mass the more the ratio tilts away from being a carbon sink, as the whole lifeform has to undergo aerobic respiration but only the leaves participate in photosynthesis.
That’s my understanding too. The carbon sink bit has to do with burying the plant matter before all of its carbon has had a chance to react with oxygen