New research suggests rain forests regrow themselves by upping how quickly they capture nitrogen and carbon after being cleared for logging or agriculture, according to a press release.

Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama said the forests actually "fix" themselves by "turning up" their nutrient intake. After capturing the nitrogen from the air, it releases it into the soil.

The researchers said the findings will impact forest restoration projects in the midst of a rising global climate.

"This is the first solid case showing how nitrogen fixation by tropical trees directly affects the rate of carbon recovery after agricultural fields are abandoned," said Jefferson Hall, STRI scientist. "Trees turn nitrogen fixation on and off according to the need for nitrogen in the system."

Hall currently directs an experiment called the Agua Salud Project, which spans more than a square mile of the Panama Canal watershed. Agua Salud, which measures carbon storage in tropical forests, hosted the group of researchers to study its relation with nitrogen fixation.

Scientists and researchers from Princeton University, Wageningen University, the University of Copenhagen, Yale University assisted STRI in the study, published online Sunday in the journal Nature.

The team compared the rate of growth among trees in mature forests with nitrogen levels of pasturelands abandoned two, 12, 30 and 80 years ago. The species of trees that captured nitrogen from the atmosphere also added carbon nine times faster than the non-fixing trees.

The "fixing" trees captured enough nitrogen fertilizer for the soil to promote the carbon storage of 50,000 kilograms "per hectare during the first 12 years of growth," read the release.

"Each tree species fixes nitrogen and carbon differently so species important at 12 years drop out or become less common at 30 years," said Princeton's Sarah Batterman, the study's first author. "You can really see how different players contribute to the development of a mature tropical forest and the ecosystem services it provides."