Plants temporarily halted the acceleration of rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, new research suggests.
From 2002 through 2014, CO2 levels measured over the oceans climbed from around 372 parts per million to 397 parts per million. But the average rate of that rise remained steady despite increasing carbon emissions from human activities, researchers report online November 8 in Nature Communications. After pouring over climate measurements and simulations, the researchers attribute this steadying to changes in the relative amount of CO2 absorbed and released by plants.
The work is the first to clearly demonstrate that plants can affect the growth rate of atmospheric CO2 over long time periods, says study coauthor Trevor Keenan, an earth systems scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Still, human emissions remain the dominant driver of CO2 levels, he says. "If we keep emitting as much as we are, and what we emit keeps going up, then it won't matter very much what the plants do."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Sunday November 13 2016, @02:26AM
Also, look at where it was published, a pay-to-publish journal that looks like it's trying to piggyback its name off Nature...
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday November 13 2016, @04:32AM
Don't shoot the messenger.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday November 13 2016, @11:25AM
Don't shoot the messenger.
Quite right. Shoot his publisher. Such a hive of scum and villainy!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 13 2016, @06:43AM
> Also, look at where it was published, a pay-to-publish journal that looks like it's trying to piggyback its name off Nature...
Its not just "piggybacking" it is a digital-only, open-access spin-off of Nature.
According to Wired, its top quality. [wired.co.uk] Third highest rated behind only Nature and Science. So, I'm not really seeing the problem.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday November 13 2016, @07:31AM
Ah, OK, so it's not one of Springer's shovelware publications. It's always a bit hard to tell what you're getting there...