How could carbon sequestration be affected by climate change?
According to a National Academy of Sciences 2001 report, “Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise.” In addition to temperature, human-induced climate change may also affect growing seasons, precipitation and the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as fire. These changes can influence forests, farming and the health of ecosystems, and thus carbon sequestration. Some argue that rising CO2 levels will enhance sequestration above normal rates due to a fertilization effect. However, the concurrent changes in temperature and precipitation, along with local nutrient availability and harmful air pollutants, complicate this view. Furthermore, recent studies of pine forests fumigated with elevated CO2 levels have shown that this fertilization effect may only be short-lived (Schlesinger and Lichter 2001; Oren et al. 2001). Current projections of busine
