How Lightning Strikes Devastate 320 Million Trees Every Year: The Hidden Impact on Our Forests

Most people don’t see trees struck by lightning very often. This might lead you to think thunderstorms aren’t too dangerous for trees. But research from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) tells a different story. In fact, lightning could be a bigger killer of trees than we thought.

The study published in Global Change Biology reveals that lightning destroys roughly 320 million trees every year. They didn’t even count the trees lost in wildfires, just the individual trees that are hit directly.

Most lightning doesn’t reach the ground. Instead, it usually stays within clouds. However, some strikes do reach down when negative charges in the atmosphere meet positive charges rising from the ground—often from tall structures like trees.

Earlier studies mostly focused on lightning in limited areas. TUM’s scientists took a new approach. They combined a global vegetation model with lightning data and observational facts to estimate how many trees lightning strikes annually.

Their findings show that lightning causes significant tree losses—about 2.1% to 2.9% of annual plant biomass. This loss of biomass contributes around 0.77 to 1.09 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year. To put this into perspective, wildfires release about 5.85 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually, but lightning’s impact is still notable.

Andreas Krause, the study’s lead author, emphasized the importance of this research. “We can now not only estimate tree deaths from lightning but also identify the regions most affected,” he said. This helps in understanding the global carbon storage and forest structure better.

The researchers are concerned about the future too. Most climate models suggest that lightning frequency may increase in the coming decades. “It’s essential to pay attention to this overlooked issue,” Krause added.

This new perspective on lightning and tree mortality could inform climate studies and conservation efforts. The more we understand the interconnectedness of weather events and ecosystems, the better prepared we’ll be for future challenges.

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