The papersounds a warning about potential limitations to the benefits of forest expansion, or afforestation, butdoes not come as a surprise, says Richard Houghton, an ecologist at the Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Forest management includes many possibilities, he says.
"Since the emissions today are three times higher than they were in the 1960s, this increased uptake by land and ocean is not only surprising; it is good news," said study co-author Richard Houghton, senior scientist at Woods Hole Research Center at Massachusetts in the US.