Europe’s forests are losing more biomass than previously thought, with disturbances such as drought and pests causing increasingly large losses from some of the oldest forests in Europe. This situation has deteriorated markedly since 2018. These are the findings of a study published in Nature Geoscience. The research, which was supported by a European Space Agency (ESA) initiative, found that biomass losses increased sharply after 2018 as drought, windstorms and insect outbreaks increasingly affected some of central Europe’s oldest and most biomass-rich forests. …For the first time, scientists have quantified how much biomass is lost from forest disturbances across Europe, rather than simply measuring the area affected. They found that, for each hectare of disturbed forest, 46% more biomass is being lost since 2018. ..,A second study, also supported by the RECCAP-2 project has produced complementary findings. Published in National Science Review, the study found that increasing loss and damage to forests is putting their role in climate change mitigation at risk.