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The Amazon rainforest is often called "the lungs of the world." It produces oxygen and stores billions of tons of carbon every year. The Amazon rainforest covers more than 60% of the landmass of Peru. Credit: USDA Forest Service photo by Diego Perez
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The finding comes out of an effort to map where vegetation is emitting and soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere...The research found that over the course of those two decades, living woody plants were responsible for more than 80% of the sources and sinks on land, with soil, leaf litter, and decaying organic matter making up the rest. But they also saw that vegetation retained a far smaller fraction of the carbon than the scientists originally thought.

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