we do know plants and trees must be taking up more carbon from the atmosphere today to account for this unrecognized release of old carbon.”
Too bad plants and trees can’t “take up” carbon released into the atmosphere by human activity...man, if it could do that for man, and not just for “natual” releases, then, why...the climate crisis would be solved!
Amazing, too, how plants and trees know to distinguish which carbons to “take up”.
A comment about the Amazon Rain Forest. It is not a carbon sink. The vast majority of the trees that die in that forest become termite food. Termites fart methane and a lot. The methane enters the atmosphere but has a relatively short half life. It is broken down into CO2 (the dreaded gas) and water.
Yes the forest contributes O2 to the atmosphere but its removal of CO2 is minimal. Organic matter that flows down the Amazon River and buried in ocean sediments is a minor carbon sink. Oddly most of our O2 comes from algae in the oceans.