In a global assessment of flora over more than 30 years, researchers at Stanford University discovered that photosynthesis, a process by which plants are taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, was mainly influenced by floods and heavy downpours, almost as frequent as droughts in many places.
According to the Latest LY report, the study underscores the essentiality of incorporating plant reactions to heavy rainfall in demonstrating dynamics and soil carbon storage in a warming world.
As specified in this report, plants are playing a vital role in curbing climate change, absorbing roughly one-third of carbon dioxide released from human activities, storing it in soil; it does not become a heat-trapping gas.
Essentially, extreme weather impacts this ecosystem service, although when it comes to understanding carbon acceptance, floods are examined far less than droughts, and they may be just as essential, the new research showed.
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Since carbon accounting is dominated by a study on drought effects, researchers were surprised to discover that photosynthesis was impacted by flooding so often in about 50 percent of the regions in the investigation.
Wet Extremes Ignored
Describing this new finding, senior study author Alexandra Konings, an Earth system science professor in Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences or Stanford Earth said, the wet extremes have basically been ignored in this field, and they're showing that there is a need for researchers to rethink it when developing schemes for future carbon accounting.
Specific regions, she explained, might be much more essential for flood impacts compared to what was previously thought.
More photosynthesis combined with other factors can allow greater carbon amounts to be stored in the soil over the long term, the researchers specified in their study.
To approximate the existence of photosynthesis, the study authors assessed plant greenness, as the publicly available satellite data between 1981 and 2015 specified.
Extreme Wet and Dry Events
Since the field of carbon accounting is dominated by a study on drought effects, co-authors were surprised to discover that photosynthesis was impacted by flooding so often in about 50 percent of the regions in the investigation.
A similar Phys.org report said, while drought is identified to reduce photosynthesis, wet extremes can either lessen or quicken the process.
The lead author of the study, Caroline Famiglietti, a Ph.D. student in Earth system science said, she thinks the drought side is possibly something that many of them understand clearly since they can see soils dying out. She added it's known that plants need water to normally function.
Through the use of statistical analysis, the study authors split the globe into regions and isolated periods during which photosynthetic activity of plants would not have caused by other factors like changes in temperature or sunlight.
The researchers then used a lot of long-term soil moisture datasets to identify which sites are more sensitive to extreme wet occurrences compared to extreme dry events and discovered that a lot of regions in central Mexico, eastern Africa, and northern latitudes should be targeted for a more extensive investigation.
Broader Climate System Behavior
Famiglietti explained everything that's observed in the master dataset reflects the broader climate system's behavior.
She added, the study, Extreme wet events as important as extreme dry events in controlling spatial patterns of vegetation greenness anomalies, published in the Environmental Research Letters, was able to identify something astonishing, although it did not answer all the questions they still have.
In a warmer world, said Konings, extreme weather is forecasted to become more intense, extensive, and prevalent, although the mechanisms controlling drought reactions in plants are much better understood compared to extreme wait responses.
The results suggest an opportunity to solve a major component of the uncertainty in future climate change and its association with the ecosystem carbon storage, elaborated Konings.
Related information is shown on Darron Gedge's Geography Channel's YouTube video below:
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