Decade of Drought Lowers Plant Productivity

As the world warmed during the 1980s and 1990s, plants across the world responded positively, and terrestrial net primary productivity—plant growth, or the amount of carbon taken up by land plants—increased. Since the decade from 2000-2009 was even warmer, one would expect to see even greater increases in productivity, but scientists at the University of Montana have found this is not the case.  In a study published in Science, Maosheng Zhao and Steven Running found that terrestrial net primary productivity decreased globally during the last decade, reducing carbon uptake by 0.55 petagrams. The scientists attribute this global decline in productivity to increased drought, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, which offset an increase in productivity in the Northern Hemisphere.