The study found that plants store carbon for a shorter time than previously thought

Carbon stored by plants globally is shorter-lived and more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought, according to a new study.

The findings have implications for our understanding of nature's role in climate change mitigation, including the potential for mitigation projects carbon nature-based, such as mass tree planting.

Research conducted by an international team led by Dr. Heather Graven from Imperial College London and which was published in Science , reveals that existing climate models underestimate the amount of carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ), which is absorbed annually by vegetation all over the world. it overestimates how long that carbon stays there.

dr. Graven, Reader in Climate Physics at Imperial's Department of Physics, said: "Plants around the world are actually more productive than we thought." (Imperial College London, more at phys.org)