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Carbon uptake by temperate forests declining due to global warming mongabay.com January 3, 2008
Shilong Piao and colleagues found that "net carbon uptake of northern ecosystems is decreasing in response to autumnal warming," according to a statement from the Global Carbon Project, a group involved in the research. Fall temperatures in northern latitudes have risen by about 1.1 C over the past two decades. Spring temperatures have climbed 0.8 C. Using computer modeling to incorporate forest canopy measurements and remote satellite data into the projections, the researchers found that "while warm spring temperatures accelerate growth more than soil decomposition and enhance carbon uptake, autumn warming greatly increases soil decomposition and significantly reduces carbon uptake."
"The potentially rapid decline in the future ability of northern terrestrial ecosystems to remove atmospheric carbon dioxide would make stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations much harder than currently predicted," added Philippe Ciais, a scientist with the Global Carbon Project. CITATION: "Net carbon dioxide losses of northern ecosystems in response to autumn warming" Shilong Piao, Philippe Ciais, Pierre Friedlingstein, Philippe Peylin, Markus Reichstein, Sebastiaan Luyssaert, Hank Margolis, Jingyun Fang, Alan Barr, Anping Chen, Achim Grelle, David Hollinger, Tuomas Laurila, Anders Lindroth, Andrew D. Richardson & Timo Vesala. Nature, Jan 2., 2008. Comments
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