In case you missed it, there was an interesting paper published last year showing that grasslands in California can be a more reliable carbon sink than forests. Even though forests can store more carbon, they store most of that carbon above ground and that goes right back into the atmosphere with the big wildfires they’ve been having. Grasslands store most of their carbon below ground where it’s not lost in major fires.

While under the best case scenario for limiting climate change (RCP2.6) trees in California can still store more carbon than grasslands, all other areas show grasslands being better for storing carbon. The drier the predicted conditions, the more grasslands win out.