Carbon sinks – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation

Things got very wet, very quickly, in Brisbane in 2011. AAP Image/Dave Hunt

March 15, 2016

Droughts and flooding rains: it takes three oceans to explain Australia’s wild 21st‑century weather

Jamie Cleverly, University of Technology Sydney and Derek Eamus, University of Technology Sydney

Since 1999, Australia has swung between drought and deluge with surprising speed, because El Niño has fallen into sync with similar patterns in the Indian and Southern Oceans.

Rice cultivation is one of the ways food production pumps methane into the atmosphere. sandeepachetan.com travel photography/Flickr

March 9, 2016

Global food production threatens to overwhelm efforts to combat climate change

Pep Canadell, CSIRO and Hanqin Tian, Auburn University

Fossil fuel emissions are slowing, but another major climate problem is becoming clear: food production.

Sea turtles eating more seagrass could threaten the ocean’s ability to store carbon. Peter Macreadie

September 28, 2015

Ocean predators can help reset our planet’s thermostat

Peter Macreadie, University of Technology Sydney; Euan Ritchie, Deakin University; Graeme Hays, Deakin University; Rod Connolly, Griffith University, and Trisha B Atwood, Utah State University

Sharks and other ocean predators help protect the ocean’s carbon stores by keeping other wildlife in check.

High and dry: a water-stressed forest in the US Southwest. Leander Anderegg

July 30, 2015

Extreme droughts weaken trees’ ability to soak up carbon

William R.L. Anderegg, Princeton University

Forests take longer than expected to rebound from droughts, diminishing their role as global carbon sinks.

Mangroves are still be cleared for aquaculture expansion. Since 1989, 6600 hectares of Tanjung Panjang Nature Reserve’s original 13,300 ha of mangroves have been converted. Iona Soulsby

April 20, 2015

Indonesia’s vast mangroves are a treasure worth saving

Andrew Campbell, Charles Darwin University and Benjamin Brown, Charles Darwin University

Mangroves, hectare for hectare, store more carbon than any other forests. But they are also among the most threatened. New projects in Indonesia show how mangroves might be restored.

Lush rainforest above ground… spare a thought for what’s happening in the soil. Tim Mowrer

January 28, 2015

Deep but not dead: how tropical subsoil microbes could affect the carbon cycle

Madeleine Stone, University of Pennsylvania

It’s no exaggeration to say the tropics drive our planet’s carbon cycle – the constant transfer of carbon back and forth, on a global scale, between living things and the environment. Understanding the…

The swollen Fitzroy River in Queensland, Australia, where heavy rains in early 2011 led to extraordinary regrowth with a global impact. Capt. W. M. & Tatters/Flickr

May 21, 2014

Record rains made Australia a giant green global carbon sink

Pep Canadell, CSIRO and Ben Poulter, Montana State University

Record-breaking rains triggered so much new growth across Australia that the continent turned into a giant green carbon sink to rival tropical rainforests including the Amazon, our new research shows…

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