Climate change affecting soil's ability to absorb CO2

NEW YORK — Climate change is affecting Earth's hydrological cycle causing the land to lose the ability to absorb CO2 emissions.

New research paper by Columbia University's School of Engineering studied how fluctuations in the Earth's hydrological cycle caused by climate change can affect the capability of continents to trap carbon dioxide emissions.

Currently, the ocean and other terrestrial biospheres are absorbing roughly 50 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

According to the paper published in the journal Nature, they analyzed data from four Earth system models to look for reductions in net biome productivity caused by changes in soil moisture. Net biome productivity or NBP refers to the net gain or loss of carbon from a region over a period of time.

Results from the study showed that the land was only absorbing half as much carbon dioxide as it could have been due to changes in soil moisture.

If extreme weather events continue to affect the Earth's hydrological cycle, the land's ability to absorb carbon dioxide will be reduced causing even more extreme weather due to carbon dioxide overload in the atmosphere.