German research shows that plant yields rise when exposed to high carbon dioxide levels
Posted 07.09.2008 at 10:32 am
12 Comments
Tell me this isn’t a summer blockbuster—as man faces the catastrophic effects of increased carbon dioxide levels, plants flourish. German researchers from the Thuenen Institute confirmed as much Tuesday, when they released findings showing that crop yields boom when plants are exposed to high levels of CO2. Jets sprayed the plants with extra CO2—enough to match the amount that scientists predict will fill the atmosphere by 2050—and the outputs of barley, beets and wheat jumped 10 percent.
Hans-Joachim Weigel, a scientist from the Thuenen Institute, was careful to note that the study shouldn’t be used to undermine attempts to reduce CO2 emissions. Other studies, after all, haven’t linked high CO2 levels with such significant plant growth. Furthermore, within Weigel's study more didn't necessarily correlate with better: The increased CO2 levels actually reduced the plant quality. In the future, the researchers are planning to study the effects of rising temperatures on plants, which is a forecasted consequence of increased CO2 emissions.
Via PhysOrg
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Thats the mistery of Nature.
Too bad we are not taking care of all the forests..
- DiGGY
That's not CO2 pouring out of that plant in the picture, it's water vapor coming from the cooling towers. I expect more from Popular Science, get your facts straight.
I am almost at a loss for words because of this article. In my daily life we frequently burn different natural gas to release CO2 into our green houses. Guess what? It does increase yield, organic and other growers have know and executed this for years. At an average of 300ppm plants grow "normally", by burning the natural fuels and adding CO2 we create and environment with levels as high as 1500ppm of CO2. Nearly all aspects of the plants life improve under these conditions.
i agree with pern. plants need co2 to do photosynthesis. why would mroe of it decrase quality? and further more, those are cooling towers in the pictures like what matty said. and in my personal opinion, i dont think its a great idea to keep dumping co2 into the air just because its good for plants or because it says we should. i mean, we should do it for electricity. we should at least keep the ecosystem well too. my sis think its alright to destroy middle americas wildlife reserves for oil. makes me sad inside
i agree with pern. plants need co2 to do photosynthesis. why would mroe of it decrase quality? and further more, those are cooling towers in the pictures like what matty said. and in my personal opinion, i dont think its a great idea to keep dumping co2 into the air just because its good for plants or because it says we should. i mean, we should do it for electricity. we should at least keep the ecosystem well too. my sis think its alright to destroy middle americas wildlife reserves for oil. makes me sad inside
I agree with everyone above. I think it decreases quality because the fertilizer in the soil isn't enough to keep up with the increase in CO2. We should plant more trees now while the CO2 is high so we can rebuild the rainforests and such. Too many people are worried about the now and not the after... Makes me sad.. So we tear down hundreds of years of mother nature to pull out oil that will just be used up and we will need to tear up more and more and more and more to keep up... We need to focus on clean renewable and that's it..
CO2 decreases plants quality because it's too much for it .. Just like too much sunlight isn't good for our skin. Too much is bad for ANYTHING. Too much co2 and too much sunlight.
We are not thinking! What are people doing! Why are they putting CO2 into the food WE eat! That's considered a crime in my book. Using CO2 is stupid. Instead of putting crops somewhere else, they use CO2! Stupid!
Uh, I think you need to brush up on your photosynthesis.
More CO2 DOES NOT reduce the quality of plants.
Plants use absorb CO2, and along with sunlight produces FOOD in the form of Carbohydrates, releasing OXYGEN as a by-product of the process.
So, More CO2 means more food produced and Oxygen released.
Get it? Got it? Good...
too much CO2 = death for plants
too much CO2 = death for humans
death + death = death ...
Stop adding CO2 to plants, there is already enough in the air. Burning chemicals to produce more is lunacy!
The point of no return will hit us even sooner if people continue with that practice.
Hey I don't think anybody realizes that when you exhale you pollute the planet. don't complain about global warming and fossil fuels causing all this trouble when you have 6 billion people breathing out a couple thousand times a day. What are we going to do about this? Slash people with an ax? Test machine guns on the chinese?
Remember the issue isn't the C02... it's the 5-7 degree shift that turns productive farmland into dust bowls... and kills native species that won't have time to naturally adapt to the higher temps. That will melt the polar ice, flooding coastal cities & causing mass migrations of hundreds of millions of refugees.
So - enjoy your greenhouse... but not a peep when your grandkids inherit a world gone mad -- because civilization itself is an ecosystem that is just as fragile as coral.