Climate modelling that best accounts for the processes that sustain plant life predicts plants could absorb up to 20% more CO₂ than the simplest version predicted.
Researchers sample water from various layers to analyze back in the lab.
Elizabeth Swanner
An unusual lake with distinct layers of low-oxygen and high-iron water lets researchers investigate conditions like those in the early Earth’s oceans.
Native wildflowers, such as these Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) that bloom early in spring are losing access to sunlight as trees leaf out earlier.
Katja Schulz/Flickr
Many beloved wildflowers bloom in early spring, while trees are still bare and the flowers have access to sunlight. Climate change is throwing trees and wildflowers out of sync.
Sunset over New Zealand from the ocean sampling voyage.
Guy Shelley/Monash University
Thanks to their high concentrations of phytoplankton, African lakes emit less CO2 than their boreal counterparts, with important consequences for climate modelling.
When trees burn, all the carbon they have stored goes back into the atmosphere.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
More carbon dioxide in the air doesn’t necessarily mean more growth for trees, and the increasing risk of wildfires and drought has major consequences, as an interactive map shows.
Most maize production relies on natural rainfall, making it vulnerable to changing rainfall patterns.
Shutterstock
Plants need light to feed themselves, so they grow in ways that help them collect as much of it as they can. Sometimes that’s straight up, but not always.
A billion-year-old ‘hydrogen economy’ in the frozen soil of Antarctica provides bacteria with energy, water, and the carbon that makes up their bodies.