The demands of a growing population have been met by increased food production in the past few decades successfully, but this could also be the reason behind seasonal swings in Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
A new study published in the journal Nature on November 19 suggests that intensive farming is also a culprit behind changing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and is affecting global temperatures negatively.
Christopher Kucharik, from the Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his colleagues have shown in this study that the huge increase in the production of crops that are grown for food is up to 25 percent responsible for the seasonal increase in carbon dioxide.
However, the findings of the study do not mean that crops add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Instead, the carbon dioxide absorbed by plants during summer and spring for photosynthesis is released back into the atmosphere in autumn and winter. Carbon dioxide is a heat trapping gas and contributes to global warming.
Production of crops in the northern hemisphere has grown by 240% since the 1960s and hence, the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed and released here are has also increased. Kucharik said that this is yet another piece of evidence that suggests that when humans do things at a large scale, the composition of the atmosphere is greatly influenced.
Estimates suggest that global food production will double in the next fifty years. The findings of this study need to be considered carefully and used to improve climate models and gain insight into the atmospheric CO2 buffering capacity of ecosystems, say researchers. The results of this study will also help researchers modify their approach applied to understand increased uptake and release of CO2 by plants.
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