Smithsonian scientists report new carbon dioxide study

Increased atmospheric CO2 stimulates soils to release, not store, CO2
[Maryland] Researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center report the results of a six-year experiment in which doubling the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in a scrub oak ecosystem caused a reduction in carbon storage in the soil. During the course of their study, Smithsonian scientists found that the amount of carbon in the ecosystem as a whole increased. However, they also saw a consistent loss in soil carbon under high CO2 conditions. The CO2 loss from soils offset about 52 percent of the additional carbon that had accumulated in the plants above ground and in the roots.

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