Is increased carbon dioxide good for trees?
One of the climate change denialist memes is that, since plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen during the day, then increased CO2 will be *good* for trees. Setting aside the facts that increased desertification and increased coastal flooding are decidedly *not* good for trees, a recent study suggests that it more CO2 doesn’t necessarily result in more/faster tree growth:
“Why not? Our new research, published today in Nature, shows it comes down to a below-ground battle for phosphorus, a mineral nutrient in soils that is essential for tree growth. The results suggest in some parts of the world, increased CO₂ means tiny bugs in the soil “hold onto” their phosphorus, making less available for trees.”
*snip*
“Most Australian soils are naturally low in phosphorus, because they are derived from ancient, nutrient-depleted rocks. The same is true for most soils in tropical and subtropical regions. That makes the phosphorus service provided by microbes even more important.
“We sampled phosphorus in all parts of the ecosystem, tracing its journey from the soil to the trees. We found under high-CO₂ conditions the microbes keep more of the phosphorus they produce, to aid their own metabolism. This left less available for trees to take up.
As the article notes, the study was done in an area that is naturally low in phosphorus. How generalizable this is will have to be tested in other areas. Meanwhile, forests in South America are been cut down to make way for agriculture, and forests in Canada are burning because of global warming.
more CO2≠more tree growth
i searched in vain for the author of this article. Maybe it;s in the link. and maybe that’s the new-daze standard for identifying aythorship. Or maybe I have just gone blind.
Maeanwhile the “meme” that CO2 is good for trees therefore man-made injection of CO2 is good for the planet” is so ignorant that it takes my breath away. Flagrant ignorance in the climate change deniers is the best evidence I have that the global-warming “theory” is correct.
and just in case you don’t understand this, I am agreeing completely with Joel and thank him for publishing this.
Increased CO2 correlates with decreased cognitive function in a variety of species, humans none-the-least. Funny thing: it ~ air pollution ~ was one of these deniers’ arguments that lead in paint wasn’t a problem, that it wasn’t lead off-gassing (or mercury in the water) leading kids to fail, it was the air pollution
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Action Hero, Conan the Barbarian, Terminator, Predator Killer, Kindergarten Cop, at the climate conference in France ten year ago, proposed a simple wager:
Pick a door to open, and enter the room and shut the door behind you. You have to stay in the room you choose for one hour. You cannot turn off the engine. You do not get a gas mask.…
I can not upvote you . . .
“correlation”
yes , but which came first: the CO2 or the decreased cognitive function?
lol
Oh yes, pump more CO2 in the air and plants will suck it in and produce more sugars and we will get increased growth and crops. /s
It only works that way if CO2 is the only limiting factor on growth. It isn’t, and we have known that for a long, long time.
Are there really that many people who are totally ignorant of how things work? Never mind, of course there are.
Sadly, most people are ignorant of just how ignorant they are.
@Jane,
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
~Upton Sinclair
i met Uppy once. He was from an era when at least some politicians tried to make sense. Now we live in an era where the sitting president campaigns by selling raffle tickets for the chance to meet him and some Hollywood stars, while the once and future precedent campaigns on making no sense at all. congressmen tell grossly stupid, hate-filled lies, and the NAACP thinks it is smart to sue a school district for keeping the names of their school the names of Confederate generals.
No doubt it’s all about the money. But it’s the stupidity, stupid.
oh, well, it was supposed to be President, but it came out presedent, which i thought apt. but then the big spell checker in the sky caught up with me. and it turned into precedent.
guess i’ll have to clean up my humor.
Tress don’t seem any taller than when I was young and CO2 concentrations were much lower.
@Eric,
LOL! Hilarious!
yes, and snow is much less deep.
coberly:
You are not being witty. I am beginning to resent your purposeful antagonism.
disappeared comment:
and you should have seen the trees in the Jurassic
but there was no grass, no wheat, no corn, no rice,…