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How Researchers in Puerto Rico Are Warming a Forest to Understand Climate Change

Tana Wood and Aura Alonso-Rodriguez clear leaves off warming plot's heaters . Image by by Daniel Grossman. Puerto Rico, 2016.

Tana Wood and Aura Alonso-Rodriguez clear leaves off warming plot's heaters . Image by by Daniel Grossman. Puerto Rico, 2016.

Each year, humans spew billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air. About half of it remains aloft. The rest is absorbed by ocean water and plants, slowing the buildup of CO2 and other gasses that are heating the planet.

But this natural check on global warming might not continue.

In a rainforest in Puerto Rico, an experiment is underway to figure out what might happen to carbon stored in tropical jungles as temperatures rise. Pulitzer Center grantee Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) reports for WBUR's Here & Now.