US trees may provide over $100 billion dollars in savings via environmental benefits—but face growing threats

The concept of ecosystem services allows researchers to quantify the benefits that nature contributes to people into monetary units. A study publishing April 5th in the open-access journal PLOS Sustainability and Transformation by Jeannine Cavender-Bares and Stephen Polasky at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, United States, and colleagues suggests that trees provide greater economic value when used to regulate climate and air quality than the value they produce as wood products, food crops, and Christmas trees.

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