While some researchers have raised the possibility that larger forests and more plants could take up co: that appears not to have the case until recent years. "Over the past two centuries, the land appears to have contributed cor to the air as forest were cut for farming Sabine said. Only in the last few decades, as reforestation has gotten underway. have plants taken in more carbon dioxide than they release. Taro Takahashi of Columbia University's Lamont-Daugherty Earth observatory noted in an Accompanying Commentary in Science that over time the amount of Co2 taken up by plants has been nearly balanced by CO2 released by changes in land used patterns.