Improving climate models to account for plant behavior yields 'goodish' news

Improving climate models to account for plant behavior yields 'goodish' news

5 years ago
Anonymous $ZPWJA6-QD2

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-climate-account-behavior-yields-goodish.html

"This is goodish news, with respect to what is currently in the climate models," said Riley, a scientist in Berkeley Lab's Earth & Environmental Sciences Area. "But it's not good news in general—it's not going to solve the problem. No matter what, plants will not keep up with anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions; it's just that they might do better than current models suggest."

Humans have emitted a record-setting 34 gigatons of CO2 per year, averaged over the past decade. Roughly half of that remains in the atmosphere, while the rest is absorbed by oceans and land (through photosynthesis); the latter amount, called the terrestrial carbon sink, varies year to year depending on factors such as fires, drought, land use, and weather.