The loneliest tree in the world alone on a small island could contribute to the climate crisis

The 120-year-old tree is 120 kilometers from its nearest neighbor in the Southern Ocean - but its location could help researchers uncover crucial information on climate change

The tree cuts a lonely frame on the small uninhabited island in the Southern Ocean (

Image: DAILY MIRROR)

Standing completely alone on a small, uninhabited island in the Southern Ocean is a 120-year-old tree.

Over 640 kilometers from southern New Zealand, here the sun shines for less than an hour most days, rain falls on average for 325 days and you can expect temperatures of just 6°C.

It has earned the nine-meter-tall Sitka spruce planted on Campbell Island the title of "the loneliest tree in the world", whose nearest neighbor grows on another island in 120 miles away.

Despite its sorry existence, it has now found a crucial role in tackling the climate crisis

Stretching between Antarctica and the southern reaches of Australia and New Zealand, the Southern Ocean absorbs 10% of all carbon emitted by humans.

The ocean is critical to keeping atmospheric carbon levels manageable (

Picture:

PENNSYLVANIA)

It acted as a buffer against climate change, essential for keeping carbon levels in the atmosphere within manageable levels.

"It's a very important part of the climate system," said Dr Andrew Meijers of the British Antarctic Survey.

“It’s sort of where we sweep climate change under the rug – stuffing it into the ocean. It really acts to enhance its effects,” he added.

But the rate at which the ocean absorbs carbon is changing. It slowed down in the 1990s, accelerated in the 2000s, and now seems to be slowing down again.

To help understand why, New Zealand scientist Dr Jocelyn Turnbull needs to compare historical and current measurements of carbon dioxide and radiocarbon (which tells you the source of that CO2) in the atmosphere around of the Southern Ocean.

This is problematic because the samples weren't taken 30 years ago. But the rings belonging to the loneliest tree in the world contain the long record she needs.

Using a hand drill, Dr Turnbull extracted a 5mm core from the tree in 2016. The results have not yet been released.

"Every year you have a ring that you can tell apart. You can cut out those rings and measure the radiocarbon in them, and then we can go back in time to this story of what happened with how the ocean has changed,” she said.

So a lonely tree could soon reveal a secret that will help protect our planet.