UK forests lock away twice as much planet-warming carbon as previously thought, a new study reveals.
The study using lasers and 3D scanning showed that old trees in particular were critical to fighting climate change.
The research mapped almost 1,000 trees in Wytham Wood in Oxfordshire.
"We've found significantly more carbon stored here," said Dr Kim Calders, from Ghent University.
An accurate calculation of the amount of carbon trapped in UK woodland could help inform decisions about how to manage it - in addition to highlighting the cost to the environment of losing that woodland.
Before 3D scanning techniques were available, weighing a tree would mean cutting it down.
The latest research, published in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence, produced laser-scanned maps of each tree and converted those into a model.
That gave a measure of each tree's volume which the scientists used to calculate the amount of carbon captured in each tree's trunk and branches. It showed that a patch of UK forest weighs about twice as much as previous calculations suggested.
"When you know the density of the wood, you can convert volume into mass," explains Prof Mat Disney, from UCL. "About half of that mass will be carbon, half is water."
Wytham Wood, one of the most scientifically studied forests in the world, is typical of UK deciduous woodland, meaning the area weighed by scientists affords an accurate estimate of the carbon value of forests across the UK.
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