The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystems

Reforesting and managing ecosystems have been proposed as ways to mitigate global warming and offset anthropogenic carbon emissions. The intent of our opinion piece is to provide a perspective on how well plants and ecosystems sequester carbon. The ability of individual plants and ecosystems to mine...

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Autores: Baldocchi, Dennis|||0000-0003-3496-4919, Peñuelas, Josep|||0000-0002-7215-0150
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:216995
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/216995
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/gcb.14559
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Biophysical ecology
Carbon sequestration
Climate mitigation
Ecosystem ecology
Unintended consequences
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spelling The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystemsBaldocchi, Dennis|||0000-0003-3496-4919Peñuelas, Josep|||0000-0002-7215-0150Biophysical ecologyCarbon sequestrationClimate mitigationEcosystem ecologyUnintended consequencesReforesting and managing ecosystems have been proposed as ways to mitigate global warming and offset anthropogenic carbon emissions. The intent of our opinion piece is to provide a perspective on how well plants and ecosystems sequester carbon. The ability of individual plants and ecosystems to mine carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as defined by rates and cumulative amounts, is limited by laws of physics and ecological principles. Consequently, the rates and amount of net carbon uptake are slow and low compared to the rates and amounts of carbon dioxide we release by fossil fuels combustion. Managing ecosystems to sequester carbon can also cause unintended consequences to arise. In this paper, we articulate a series of key take-home points. First, the potential amount of carbon an ecosystem can assimilate on an annual basis scales with absorbed sunlight, which varies with latitude, leaf area index and available water. Second, efforts to improve photosynthesis will come with the cost of more respiration. Third, the rates and amount of net carbon uptake are relatively slow and low, compared to the rates and amounts and rates of carbon dioxide we release by fossil fuels combustion. Fourth, huge amounts of land area for ecosystems will be needed to be an effective carbon sink to mitigate anthropogenic carbon emissions. Fifth, the effectiveness of using this land as a carbon sink will depend on its ability to remain as a permanent carbon sink. Sixth, converting land to forests or wetlands may have unintended costs that warm the local climate, such as changing albedo, increasing surface roughness or releasing other greenhouse gases. We based our analysis on 1,163 site-years of direct eddy covariance measurements of gross and net carbon fluxes from 155 sites across the globe. 22019-01-0120192019-01-01Articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501AMhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_ab4af688f83e57aainfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://ddd.uab.cat/record/216995https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/gcb.14559reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UABinstname:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaInglésengEuropean Commission https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 610028open accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Aquest material està protegit per drets d'autor i/o drets afins. Podeu utilitzar aquest material en funció del que permet la legislació de drets d'autor i drets afins d'aplicació al vostre cas. Per a d'altres usos heu d'obtenir permís del(s) titular(s) de drets.https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:ddd.uab.cat:2169952026-06-06T12:50:31Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystems
title The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystems
spellingShingle The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystems
Baldocchi, Dennis|||0000-0003-3496-4919
Biophysical ecology
Carbon sequestration
Climate mitigation
Ecosystem ecology
Unintended consequences
title_short The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystems
title_full The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystems
title_fullStr The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystems
title_full_unstemmed The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystems
title_sort The physics and ecology of mining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ecosystems
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Baldocchi, Dennis|||0000-0003-3496-4919
Peñuelas, Josep|||0000-0002-7215-0150
author Baldocchi, Dennis|||0000-0003-3496-4919
author_facet Baldocchi, Dennis|||0000-0003-3496-4919
Peñuelas, Josep|||0000-0002-7215-0150
author_role author
author2 Peñuelas, Josep|||0000-0002-7215-0150
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Biophysical ecology
Carbon sequestration
Climate mitigation
Ecosystem ecology
Unintended consequences
topic Biophysical ecology
Carbon sequestration
Climate mitigation
Ecosystem ecology
Unintended consequences
description Reforesting and managing ecosystems have been proposed as ways to mitigate global warming and offset anthropogenic carbon emissions. The intent of our opinion piece is to provide a perspective on how well plants and ecosystems sequester carbon. The ability of individual plants and ecosystems to mine carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as defined by rates and cumulative amounts, is limited by laws of physics and ecological principles. Consequently, the rates and amount of net carbon uptake are slow and low compared to the rates and amounts of carbon dioxide we release by fossil fuels combustion. Managing ecosystems to sequester carbon can also cause unintended consequences to arise. In this paper, we articulate a series of key take-home points. First, the potential amount of carbon an ecosystem can assimilate on an annual basis scales with absorbed sunlight, which varies with latitude, leaf area index and available water. Second, efforts to improve photosynthesis will come with the cost of more respiration. Third, the rates and amount of net carbon uptake are relatively slow and low, compared to the rates and amounts and rates of carbon dioxide we release by fossil fuels combustion. Fourth, huge amounts of land area for ecosystems will be needed to be an effective carbon sink to mitigate anthropogenic carbon emissions. Fifth, the effectiveness of using this land as a carbon sink will depend on its ability to remain as a permanent carbon sink. Sixth, converting land to forests or wetlands may have unintended costs that warm the local climate, such as changing albedo, increasing surface roughness or releasing other greenhouse gases. We based our analysis on 1,163 site-years of direct eddy covariance measurements of gross and net carbon fluxes from 155 sites across the globe.
publishDate 2019
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2
2019-01-01
2019
2019-01-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
AM
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_ab4af688f83e57aa
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://ddd.uab.cat/record/216995
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/gcb.14559
url https://ddd.uab.cat/record/216995
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/gcb.14559
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv European Commission https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 610028
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
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dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
instname:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
instname_str Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
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