When Rain Falls in Africa, Grassland Carbon Uptake Rises

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By Saima May Sidik, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: Africa is a source of uncertainty in carbon cycle calculations. By some estimates, the continent’s landscapes emit 2.1 billion tons more carbon dioxide than they take up each year—about equal to 1.5 times the annual emissions from coal-fired power plants. But other estimates are almost the complete opposite, suggesting that the continent’s copious plant matter takes up 2.0 billion more tons of carbon dioxide per year than it releases. This uncertainty exists in part because the amount of carbon Africa takes up and emits varies greatly from year to year and partly because there is a dearth of available surface observations across the continent. Yun et al. investigated the reason for these fluctuations by applying a suite of atmospheric transport models to data from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2).... By filling a critical observational gap over Africa, the OCO-2 satellite has allowed researchers to examine the continent’s carbon cycle in unprecedented detail. ...researchers found that in Africa, moisture levels have a much bigger impact [than temperature].... 

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