Reducing pollution from aerosol particles would improve air quality. It could also increase the amount of sunlight accessible to plants—enhancing their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change.
Reducing pollution from aerosol particles would improve air quality. It could also increase the amount of sunlight accessible to plants—enhancing their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change.
New work from a Carnegie-led team including Liyin He, Lorenzo Rosa, and Joe Berry used satellites to measure both photosynthetic activity and aerosol pollution in Europe, demonstrating that plants capture more carbon on the weekends when industrial production is decreased, and fewer people commute.
Their findings are published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Plants have a special ability, called photosynthesis, by which they convert the Sun’s energy into chemical energy. To accomplish this, they take in carbon dioxide from the air and fix it into carbohydrates and fats.
Read More: Carnegie Institute for Science
