NOAA: Drought hinders CO2 uptake

Study finds 2002 dry weather left extra carbon in atmosphere

A new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder shows that millions of extra tons of carbon dioxide were left in the Earth’s atmosphere as a result of the 2002 drought across North America.

The findings, the first from NOAA’s atmospheric monitoring and modeling system called CarbonTracker, show that the amount of carbon dioxide absorbedby vegetation and soil dropped from an annual average of 650 million metric tons to 330 million metric tons. The excess amount of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas remaining in the atmosphere that year was equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 200 million U.S. automobiles.

…”We’re pretty confident that if you suddenly get a lot of drought, you get more plant decomposition and less absorption of carbon,” Miller said. “As a result, carbon dioxide is higher in the atmosphere, and the more carbon in the atmosphere the more warming. So you have a positive, vicious cycle building up.”

Boulder Daily Camera