Según este estudio de la universidad de Princeton del que me informa Golan sí:
Princeton, N.J. -- Researchers from Princeton University, with collaborators from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and Columbia University, have found evidence of higher-than-expected absorption of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by ecosystems in North America. The findings of the research team, the Carbon Modeling Consortium, are published today in the journal Science. The carbon-absorbing zone, known to geoscientists as a carbon "sink," soaked up high amounts of carbon dioxide during the period studied, from 1988 to 1992, confirming earlier studies. Evidence has been accumulating in recent years that a large component of this sink must be on land. Today's findings suggest that the North American continent plays a much larger role than what would be proportional to its size. (...)Forest regrowth, and carbon absorption, in North America may be enhanced by some side effects of industrialization. Nitrogen deposition (a dilute form of acid rain) caused by combustion processes in automobiles and power plants can act as a fertilizer, as can the higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the air. Global warming can contribute to longer growing seasons, which have been observed in studies of satellite measurements cited by the team.
The researchers stress that all of these mechanisms are temporary. It is thus inevitable that this sink will eventually go to zero.
Team members emphasized that while the North American sink may prove important in worldwide management of atmospheric carbon absorption, its value will come at a global level, not a regional level. Sources of carbon dioxide from all parts of the earth mix together rapidly, certainly much more quickly than a local sink can act. Thus, today's results should not be interpreted as justification for claiming that pre-existing carbon sinks in a given region act to offset that region's combustion-produced carbon dioxide. Put simply, the fact that a pollution source, such as a factory, happens to be located near a large forest does not in any way diminish that facility's contribution to rising carbon levels.