Highly read on http://www.agu.org the week of 10 January

Vegetation could offset atmospheric warming by around 0.6 °C over land during a projected 30-year period during which atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are double those of pre-industrial times.

Lahouari Bounoua of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and his colleagues ran three long-term climate models simulating various plant feedback effects. These included a response that increases leaf density and decreases photosynthesis at higher CO2 levels. This caused greater water availability and evaporation from plant surfaces — providing additional cooling not previously accounted for. Average global temperatures rose by 1.68 °C, 0.26 °C less than predicted by conventional models.

The results are in line with observations and suggest that long-term plant responses could moderate global temperatures if CO2 levels are stabilized.

Geophys. Res. Lett. doi:10.1029/2010GL045338 (2010)