An animation that shows the difference in carbon emissions in each season at a glance will be released

In recent years, global warming has been attracting attention as an urgent problem, and the carbon dioxide that causes it is greatly affected by the respiration and photosynthesis of plants around the world. However, plants tend to 'in the summer, photosynthesis becomes active and carbon dioxide absorption becomes dominant, but in winter, respiratory and decomposition activities become active and carbon dioxide emission becomes dominant,' depending on the season. It repeatedly absorbs and emits carbon dioxide. The movie released by Marcus Reichstein, who is responsible for the biogeochemical integration department at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, gives an intuitive understanding of changes in the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed / emitted by plants. It is an animation movie.

Earth inhales and exhales carbon in mesmerizing animation | Live Science

Here's ecosystem net #carbon flux average seasonal cycle on the sphere ... what I really like, we see intuitively the carbon 'sink' when the biosphere is sucking carbon out of the atmosphere. Thanks to @tylermorganwall @mdsumner D.Murdoch @edzerpebesma R.Hijmans #RStats pic.twitter.com/1jTl96glY6

— Markus Reichstein (@Reichstein_BGC) January 6, 2022

This movie shows 'carbon dioxide absorbed / discharged by plants' in color and thickness on the three-dimensionally expressed earth. If the terrain is red & raised, it emits carbon dioxide, and if it is blue & dented, it indicates that it is absorbing carbon dioxide. In January, when it started, it seems that carbon dioxide is absorbed in the southern hemisphere, which is in the summer, but is emitted in the northern hemisphere, which is in the winter.

As the movie progresses, the earth itself rotates as the seasons change. In July, carbon dioxide was absorbed in areas other than the northern part of the African continent, and it seems that the absorption rate is quite high especially in Northern Europe where there are many trees.

South America, which has the Amazon rainforest, also has a high carbon dioxide absorption rate in the summer. In addition, although the sea absorbs carbon dioxide, it does not change from season to season, so it is depicted in this movie in a form that does not change.

Japan changed from emission to absorption around March ...

It seems that absorption will change to discharge around October.

According to Reichstein, the data used to create this animation came from carbon surveillance stations around the world. It has been confirmed that climate change is changing the growth pattern of vegetation, and the 'carbon flow' as visualized in this movie is gradually changing. 'There will be different impacts depending on the location,' Reichstein said of these changes. In the Northern Hemisphere, summers are prolonged and basically have a positive effect on vegetation, while water shortages occur in the summer, such as in the western United States. It seems that it is possible that it will have the opposite effect on the area where it occurs.

'The seasonal changes in carbon dioxide absorption / emission shown in this animation tell us that forests are critical to the health of the planet,' Reichstein said.