https://phys.org/news/2018-07-expansion-agricultural-co2-absorption.html

A research group led by Arneth and Dr. Benjamin Quesada at IMK-IFU has dealt with the impact of changes in land use on the expected concentration of carbon dioxide—in other words CO2 projection—in the earth's atmosphere. Their study titled "Potential strong contribution of future anthropogenic land-use and land-cover change to the terrestrial carbon cycle" published in Environmental Research Letters shows that changes in land use have a significant impact on future CO2 absorption from the atmosphere.

If forests are cut down in favor of arable land and pasture land, it reduces the capacity of plants and soil to take up CO2. "The wood in a forest can store more CO2 than corn for example," explains Arneth who in her research deals with the interaction between the atmosphere, plants and soil. If deforestation were to continue, it could even be expected that large parts of the tropics will change from a CO2 basin—which absorbs more CO2 than it releases—to a CO2 source.