High Carbon Levels Can Make It Harder For Plants To Grow (that's just duckey!)

High Carbon Levels Can Make It Harder For Plants To Grow

by Natasha Geiling at Think Progress

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/06/13/3669094/carbon-dioxide-could-mean-less-nutritious-plants/

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In contrast to a popular conservative argument, a new study has found that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide isn’t necessarily a boon to plant growth — instead, it causes plants to have a more difficult time absorbing nitrogen, a nutrient critical to plant growth and health.

Published in the journal Global Change Biology, the study found that as carbon dioxide levels in the air increase, the concentration of nitrogen in plants decreases, thus decreasing the plant’s protein levels and growth ability. The team of international researchers studied the impact of increased atmospheric carbon across multiple types of ecosystems — from grasslands for forests — by looking at large-scale field experiments conducted in eight countries across four different continents.

“For all types of ecosystem the results show that high carbon dioxide levels can impede plants’ ability to absorb nitrogen, and that this negative effect is partly why raised carbon dioxide has a marginal or non-existent effect on growth in many ecosystems,” Johan Uddling, senior lecturer at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg and lead researcher on the project, said in a press statement.

Among conservatives — and some scientists — there has been a long-held hope that climate change could actually stimulate plant growth in the short term, as the atmosphere becomes more rich with carbon dioxide. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) has said that climate change has “contributed to increasing agricultural productivity,” arguing that “CO2 is a fertilizer.” And while some studies have supported Inhofe’s claim, others — like this most recent one — have found the opposite to be true.



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