Plants take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis in the day, and
release it during respiration at night.
In climate change scenarios simulated by the model GOTILWA + — within the Consolider - Ingenio project Montes and the research project Med - Forestream — , net primary productivity of Spanish forests (how much carbon dioxide plants take in during photosynthesis minus how much carbon dioxide
they release during respiration) will decrease from the second half of this century.
The simulations suggested that the indirect effects of increased CO2 on net primary productivity (how much carbon dioxide vegetation takes in during photosynthesis minus how much carbon dioxide the plants
release during respiration) are large and variable, ranging from less than 10 per cent to more than 100 per cent of the size of direct effects.
But the fluorescence map, an unexpected secondary capability, provides a more direct measure of carbon fluxes: the amount mopped up by plants during photosynthesis or
released during respiration.
Not exact matches
They suggest this «pause» in the acceleration of carbon dioxide concentrations was, in part, due to the effect of the temporary slowdown in global average surface warming
during that same period on
respiration, the process by which plants and soils
release CO2.