Environmental News Network - Chapman University Climate Scientist Finds New Way to Measure the Earth’s Ability to Offset Carbon Emissions

Details: By Chapman University; 25.Jul

A Chapman University scientist and his colleagues have determined how the Earth responds as it heats up due to climate change.

Julie Swatson

A Chapman University scientist and his colleagues have determined how the Earth responds as it heats up due to climate change.

The scientists say a warming world calls for a new approach in detecting how much carbon dioxide comes out of ecosystems when the temperature changes — which tells us how well plants and soil can alleviate damage by removing carbon pollution from the atmosphere. The study is the first to find the temperature-carbon dioxide release relationship at the landscape level.

Their findings are published in the prestigious academic peer-reviewed journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Plants that currently take up a quarter to a third of humanity’s carbon emissions might not be able to maintain the rate of carbon dioxide removal, says Joshua Fisher, a climate scientist and associate professor of environmental science and policy at Chapman University’s Schmid College of Science and Technology.

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Chapman University Climate Scientist Finds New Way to Measure the Earth’s Ability to Offset Carbon Emissions