James Curran, the former chief executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and his son Sam analysed the ups and downs in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, revealing that peak carbon sequestration occurred in 2008, and since then the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by plants has declined by an average of 0.25% a year.
Analysis of atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements show that Earth’s plants and soils reached peak carbon dioxide sequestration in 2008 and absorption has been declining ever since.
Earth’s plants and soils reached peak carbon dioxide sequestration in 2008 but proportion absorbed has been declining since, study finds.
But at some point these benefits start to be outweighed by the negatives of a warming climate: wildfires, drought, storms, floods, the spread of new pests and diseases and plant heat stress all reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that plants absorb.
Rising levels of carbon dioxide helped to spur growth and warmer temperatures gave rise to a longer growing season.
