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Map showing the global atmospheric carbon removal by plants in winter 2000 in millions of grams per square kilometre per day. Plants remove carbon dioxide from the air to produce biomass via photosynthesis. The rate of removal is more or less constant in the tropics, but fluctuates with the seasons as the latitudes increase. There is very little removal in deserts, and urban and ice-covered areas. (KEYSTONE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)