The world is leading towards more accurate climate modelling, more equitable policymaking, and more sustainable food production thanks to the Imbalance-P project, with Josep Peñuelas, Michael Obersteiner, Ivan Janssens and Philippe Ciais.
Not only humans have the capacity for communication. Queen bees emit pheromones in order to control workers, and abortions can be provoked in pregnant female mice just by their smelling of odors produced by a male distinct to that which fertilized them. Plants also communicate with chemical signals which they release into their surroundings, helping them to interact with other plants and living beings, including microorganisms.
According to the study in which CREAF participated, China contributes 43% of this amount. For decades it had been thought that human activities were responsible for only around 5% of atmospherically-circulating phosphorus. More phosphorus in the air means more phosphors deposited on the ground. This can boost plant growth and the capacity to sequester atmospheric CO2; for that reason human activities may be altering the phosphorus and carbon cycles to a degree which was previously unknown
The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, showed that forests growing in fertile soils with ample nutrients are able to sequester about 30% of the carbon that they take up during photosynthesis. In contrast, forests growing in nutrient-poor soils may retain only 6% of that carbon. The rest is returned to the atmosphere as respiration.
