Garden tip: A look at carbon sequestration
What does it mean when conservationists talk about sequestering carbon? And what does it have to do with plants?
Sequester refers to isolating, segregating or hiding away. How does this happen to carbon?
Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere by plants, and the carbon is stored (or sequestered) in the leaves, stems and roots of plants.
The cellulose in plants is composed of long chains of sugar molecules. The carbon in carbon dioxide becomes the carbon in the sugar molecules.
We are all interested in global warming and climate change. This may help us understand some of the scientific background. Another good source of information is climatechangeconnection.org/science/faq.
— Katie Martin, UC Marin master gardener