Increased soil emissions of potent greenhouse gases under increased atmospheric CO2
![leshyk illustration nature](https://ecoss.nau.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Nature-Illustration-final-full.jpg)
Researchers at Ecoss helped to uncover a potent offset to carbon “drawdown” by plants: with more CO2 available to fuel photosynthesis in the air above, soil microbes consume more sugars oozing from the roots of the faster-growing plants and increase their own greenhouse-gas emissions during respiration. These emissions offset the climate cooling effect of the plants’ carbon sequestration, dramatically changing the net climate effects calculated from plant growth alone.