Plants are likely to absorb more CO₂ in a changing climate than we thought – here’s why

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 19:38:46 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/plants-are-likely-to-absorb-more-co-in-a-changing-climate-than-we-thought-heres-why-217786>

"The world’s vegetation has a remarkable ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂)
from the air and store it as biomass. In doing so, plants slow down climate
change since the CO₂ they take up does not contribute to global warming.

But what will happen under more advanced climate change? How will vegetation
respond to projected changes in atmospheric CO₂, temperatures and rainfall? Our
study, published today in Science Advances, shows plants might take up more
CO₂ than previously thought.

We found climate modelling that best accounted for the processes that sustain
plant life consistently predicted the strongest CO₂ uptake. The most complex
model predicted up to 20% more than the simplest version.

Our findings highlight the resilience of plants, and the importance of planting
trees and preserving existing vegetation to slow climate change. While this is
good news, it doesn’t let us off the hook in the fight against climate change.
The rapid increase in atmospheric CO₂ means we must still cut emissions."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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