Carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere stagnated

Although the carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activities are still increasing, the growth rate of carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere has temporarily stagnated, according to a climate science research report published online on the 9th in the Journal of nature communications This finding shows that the increase of carbon absorption by terrestrial vegetation reduces the proportion of carbon dioxide emissions retained in the atmosphere Since the industrial revolution, the absolute carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere has been rising, but the growth rate will fluctuate greatly, which is largely caused by the interannual differences in plant growth Since dioxygen plays an important role in climate change, it is very important to quantify the change of carbon dioxide emission growth rate However, because different processes restrict plant growth, especially the difference between absorption and emission and carbon dioxide, it is not easy to assess the change Trevor Keenan, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under the U.S Department of energy, and colleagues used empirical observations and vegetation models to determine the difference between these drivers They show that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increase photosynthesis, but slower global temperatures also reduce the respiration of carbon dioxide Both of these factors mean that plants absorb more carbon dioxide As a result, the rate of carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere decreased by about 2.2% per year between 2002 and 2014 The research team reminded that the slowdown of the growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide content is likely to be temporary Under the condition of continuous increase of absolute carbon dioxide content, the increase of plant carbon storage will not solve the problem of climate change.