Changes in land carbon sink

A new European Space Agency-backed study shows that the extreme heatwaves of 2023, which fuelled huge wildfires and severe droughts, also undermined the land’s capacity to soak up atmospheric carbon. This diminished carbon uptake drove atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to new highs, intensifying concerns about accelerating climate change.

The graph shows changes in the declining northern land carbon sink (blue) and the variations of tropical land flux (green) 2015–2023. The solid lines reflect analyses using dynamic global vegetation models the dotted lines are based on data from NASA–JPL’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission.

Read full story: Extreme heat weakens land’s power to absorb carbon