News Climate

Plants might not hold on to carbon as long as we thought

What the finding means for future projections of climate isn’t yet clear

A small plant growing in soil.

Radiocarbon from bomb tests shows that plants stock more carbon in short-lived tissue such as leaves and stems than previously estimated.

sarayut Thaneerat/Moment/Getty Images

By Carolyn Gramling

Earth’s plants aren’t holding onto carbon as long as we thought.

A new analysis of pulses of radioactive carbon-14 from 20th-century bomb tests reveals that plants stock more carbon in short-lived tissues such as leaves than previously estimated, scientists report in the June 21 Science.