How much CO2 could the biosphere absorb in one year?

Question

It seems from reading answers to question about growing plants no one has a clear idea as to how much biomass is generated or how much growth can be forced by conditions sometimes found in nature. So it seems someone should do the math and determine the parimeters on photosysthesis potental.

Answer 1

You can get a decent idea from this graph. Maybe do a calculation based on it.

http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/graphics_gallery/mauna_loa_record/mlo_record.html

The small teeth are the biosphere dealing with CO2. In summer it goes down a little, in winter back up.

Overall it keeps going up. We're digging up carbon the biosphere buried over many thousands of years and burning it real fast. The biosphere just can't keep up.

The ideas I've seen about using the biosphere effectively involve grand schemes, like seeding the ocean to grow huge amounts of plankton.

Some info here about the complexity of using that approach:

http://future.iftf.org/2006/12/forests_global_.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0609_040609_carbonsink.html

Answer 2

I think it has already been done about 10 years ago by the university of Louisiana .