News Planetary Science

Worldwide slowdown in plant carbon uptake

Recent droughts stifled growth of terrestrial vegetation

By Sid Perkins

- More than 2 years ago

Deep and extended droughts are responsible for a recent slowdown in the amount of carbon dioxide that land plants pulled from the atmosphere as they grew, a new study suggests.

GLOBAL BROWNING Droughts stifled carbon storage in vegetation in many regions during the last decade, satellite images reveal. Declines in carbon storage from 2000 through 2009 are depicted in shades of red; green denotes increases in vegetation for the same period.