Photo / 123RFThe striking carbon-cutting effect of last year's lockdown has been captured in tiny blades of grass. Why could grass tell us about shifts in carbon dioxide? Radiocarbon, particularly, was the radioactive form of carbon - and all naturally occurring carbon from forms of biogenic exchange, like photosynthesis and respiration, had a modern radioactive carbon signal. Generally, Turnbull didn't think the nationwide results too surprising, given the lockdown's obvious impact on traffic and its emissions. Separately, GNS scientists collected a small dataset of direct flask measurements from Auckland during the lockdown, which showed similar results to the grass samples.

Source: New Zealand Herald April 22, 2021 00:00 UTC