The natural process of locking away carbon dioxide (CO2) appears to be in decline—and climate change will accelerate as a result, a University of Strathclyde study warns.
Researchers found that the levels of CO2 retained in vegetation through this process, which is known as sequestration, had been increasing at 0.8% per year in the 1960s, but peaked in 2008 and are now falling at 0.25% per year.
If its growth rate of the 1960s had continued, natural sequestration would have increased by 50% from 1960 to 2010, but if its current rate of decline continues, it will have reduced by half in 250 years.