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17916
From: JTRIV, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Earth inhales and exhales carbon in mesmerizing animation
URL: Earth inhales and exhales carbon in mesmerizing animation
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Earth inhales and exhales carbon in mesmerizing animation By Stephanie Pappas published about 11 hours ago The animation shows plants taking up and releasing carbon as the seasons change. The Earth seems to inhale and exhale in a new animation that shows how carbon is taken up and released as the seasons change. The animated continents seem to deflate during summertimes, indicating times and places where vegetation is growing and plants are sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. When it's winter, the continents seem to inflate, indicating that vegetation is dying off and carbon is being released. The changes are most striking at temperate latitudes like continental Europe and North America, where seasonal differences are more pronounced. Equatorial regions don't change as much throughout the year, while some desert regions, being sparsely vegetated, don't store or release much carbon at all. The data for the animation comes from satellite observations and hundreds of carbon-monitoring stations worldwide, said Markus Reichstein, the director of the Biogeochemical Integration Department at the Max-Planck- Institute for Biogeochemistry in Germany, who posted the animation on Twitter on Jan. 6. "The visualization is really just a fun project," Reichstein told Live Science. What the animation ultimately shows is an important portion of the carbon cycle, or the flow of carbon throughout the planet's system. Carbon can be released into the atmosphere by decaying organic material and by the erosion of rocks containing carbon compounds; conversely, it can be taken up by the oceans and by plants, which use carbon in the process of photosynthesis. The importance of plants is clear in the animation, which shows places chock full of plants such as the Brazilian Amazon and the forests of Eastern Europe taking in massive amounts of carbon in the southern and northern hemisphere summers, respectively. The ocean isn't included in the animation, because while the ocean does take in carbon, it does not show strong seasonal patterns, Reichstein said. Climate change is altering the pattern of vegetation growth around the globe, Reichstein said, so the flow of carbon in and out of the biosphere is also changing. Those changes are too small to show up on a visualization such as this one, he said, but they will have different impacts in different places. For example, warmer, longer summers in the Northern Hemisphere can be good for plant growth, he said. But where warming comes with a lack of precipitation — as in much of the American West — climate change can restrict plant growth. "This carbon cycle and how it changes from month to month tells us a lot," Reichstein said. But when it comes to societal impact, he said, the takeaway message is that forests are crucial to the planet's health. Recent research finds that the Amazon, one of the biggest carbon sinks on the planet, has recently been releasing more carbon each year than it takes in thanks to deforestation and wildfires, Live Science reported. "It basically is showing how important it is to protect the carbon sinks," he said. Originally published on Live Science. |
17918
From: pamela, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Earth inhales and exhales carbon in mesmerizing animation
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Thanks, good article, info. Here's another site that watches the forests and has an interactive map: March 31, 2021 A new interactive map of carbon sources and sinks from forests around the world confirm that forests take up twice as much carbon as they release. In a new study published in Nature Climate Change Wageningen researchers cooperated with an international team to combine numerous databases with forests measurements on land and from satellite observations. The resulting new zoomable world map reveals forest carbon changes in the last two decades ranging from forest stand scale, the level of communities, provinces, countries to an entire continent. Forests absorb twice as much carbon as they emit each year Prof. Martin Herold of Wageningen University & Research The forest carbon flux map, now publicly available on Global Forest Watch, shows that between 2001 and 2019, forests emitted an average of 8.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from deforestation and other disturbances, while (re)growing forests took up 16 billion tonnes. These substantial amounts of global carbon indicate that forests are net carbon deposits. Forests absorb twice as much carbon as they emit each year, says Prof. Martin Herold of Wageningen University & Research. “But it also means that we cannot miss those sinks in global climate control”. He is referring to the fact that in 2019 alone, the world lost 11.9 million hectares of tree cover: “Healthy forests, soils and oceans help keeping carbon sinks in function. We cannot afford to lose the CO2 absorption capacity of forests”, he adds. Detailed global maps The maps show in detail the significant carbon emissions from deforestation in the tropics. For Europe, it demonstrates for instance the effect of forest management in Sweden and Finland where large forest areas are harvested and replanted, or the effect of natural disasters such as the South-West of France where a huge storm destroyed the coastal forests more than a decade ago. In another geographic scale the data show that 27% of the world’s net forest carbon sink falls within protected areas, underscoring the need for conservation within these areas. Public accessible maps and data The downloadable underlying data can be used by everyone: regional and national governments, the EU, or environmental NGOs and social organisations. For instance to give a complete picture in the condition and changes of forests in an area. “This information indicates the locations for action. It highlights ‘hot spots’ of forest carbon emission and supports restauration policy and practices for instance to create resilient landscapes as an adaption to climate change. Tree planting means retaining more carbon on land. However, this is just part of the climate solution and it remains essential to invest in reducing fossil fuel carbon emissions,” Martin Herold says. The methodology was developed by a team of scientists and researchers from CIFOR, NASA Goddard, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, The Sustainability Consortium, University of Maryland, Wageningen University, Woodwell Climate Research Center and World Resources Institute. By combining ground measurements with satellite observations this method provides the first globally consistent dataset for estimating carbon fluxes from forests. This new monitoring system will support more targeted policies and actions, and transparent tracking towards forest-specific climate mitigation goals with both local detail and global consistency. The Wageningen contribution by the PhD candidate Daniela Requena Suarez and researcher Sytze de Bruin of the Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing, led by Prof. Martin Herold has been by providing key data sources, and for assessing uncertainties of the database and the estimations combining satellites and ground measurements. prof.dr. M (Martin) Herold Any questions about this study? Ask our expert prof.dr. M (Martin) Herold Contact form See also Website Global Forest Watch Radar satellite exposes illegal logging in African rainforests Deforestation is complicated – and so is the solution (Resource) Read the full publication Global maps of twenty-first century forest carbon fluxes. Nancy L. Harris, David A. Gibbs, Alessandro Baccini, Richard A. Birdsey, Sytze de Bruin, Mary Farina, Lola Fatoyinbo, Matthew C. Hansen, Martin Herold, Richard A. Houghton, Peter V. Potapov, Daniela Requena Suarez, Rosa M. Roman-Cuesta, Sassan S. Saatchi, Christy M. Slay, Svetlana A. Turubanova and Alexandra Tyukavina. Nature Climate Change, 21 January 2021. Read the dossier Climate and forests There are more than 3 trillion trees on earth, that means there are about 422 trees per person. However, the total number of trees has almost been... About WURCareerContactLogin en|English Education & ProgrammesResearch & ResultsValue Creation & Cooperation Search Search Search HomeClick to expand Worldwide forest carbon sources and sinks mapped in unprecedented detail Wageningen University and Research - To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life. 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17917
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Earth inhales and exhales carbon in mesmerizing animation
| cool! |
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