New York: According to a recent study published in the Nature Communications journal, carbon released by plant’s respiration has increased nearly 30 percent which suggests respiration percentage will significantly increase with increasing global temperatures.
Such increases may lower the future ability of global vegetation to offset carbon dioxide emissions caused by burning fossil fuels.
Lead author Chris Huntingford of Britain’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said, “Plants both capture carbon dioxide and then release it by respiration. Changes to either of these processes in response to climate change have profound implications for how much ecosystems soak up carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.”
“In fact, this study provides the most up-to-date accounting of respiratory carbon releases from plants in terrestrial systems,” said Peter Reich, Professor at University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences in the US.
The recent study is based on the comprehensive GlobResp database, comprising of more than 10,000 measurements of carbon dioxide plant respiration from plant species around the globe.
This data has been merged with the existing computer models of global land carbon cycling showed plant respiration has been a potentially underestimated source of carbon dioxide release.
“Once we incorporate this data into state-of-the-art carbon cycling models, we are much closer to being able to accurately model carbon cycle feedbacks for climates across the globe,” Reich said.
Study claims plant respiration larger source of carbon emission
