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Role of plant life in global climate accurately determined
Researchers from 18 scientific institutions have used observations and calculations to determine the amount of CO2 exchange between global vegetation and the atmosphere. The new results are the most accurate to date. They have concluded that the total terrestrial vegetation captures 123 petagrams of carbon annually (in other words, 123 billion tonnes per year). According to their article in the Science Express of 8 July, the authors (including Elmar Veenendaal from Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR) believe that this new data will enable them to further constrain existing climate models.
In the carbon cycle, plants utilise sunlight to fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in biomass. Until now, there were no accurate data on how much CO2 terrestrial plants capture via photosynthesis - the gross primary production. Nevertheless, the available data were used in climate models, being important for prognoses on carbon uptake from the atmosphere. A research team led by the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena has done some new calculations using observations and measurements. The results were similar to older estimates but the researchers can now guarantee the accuracy of the data with more certainty.
The authors of the article in Science Express emphasise that the highest gross carbon uptake in terrestrial ecosystems is found in tropical forests, responsible for 34% of CO2 uptake from the atmosphere. Savannahs cover twice as much surface area and account for 26% of the global CO2 uptake, thus emphasising that the latter - a less-well researched system - is also important.
The research team also discovered that precipitation played an important role in the amount of carbon that plants capture by means of photosynthesis. Precipitation plays a key role in more than 40% of the vegetated regions. This means that water availability is essential for ensuring food production. Existing, process models tend to overestimate the influence of rain on worldwide uptake of all carbon dioxide.
In future, it is hoped the research will help to produce more accurate scenarios of the way in which a changing climate affects exchange of carbon between vegetation in diverse ecosystems and the atmosphere.
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