New research has determined that the hundreds of millions of trees killed or damaged on the Gulf Coast during the 2005 hurricane season "have become an unexpectedly large contributor to global warming."

Steve McNulty, ecologist and team leader with EFETAC's Southern Global Change Program, has been using field surveys and aerial photography in an attempt to quantify the carbon dioxide that will be released from the trees damaged as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Steve's work, along with that of Tulane University biology professor Jeff Chambers, is discussed in the Climate Connections story. Visit the NPR website to listen to the story or to read the transcript.