If there was ever a true benefactor of the climate change scoundrel, it was always the plants that lush our planet. As growing human greed burgeoned carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, it only meant that these resilient organisms had more “food” available to munch on and grow.
And this isn’t even conjecture. Studies have already confirmed that trees have been getting larger since humans began pumping noxious greenhouse gases into the air. This buffet of sorts carried on for decades, until climate change inadvertently had to play spoilsport.
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Now, a recent review paper analysing atmospheric carbon dioxide and water levels from 1982 to 2016 has found that photosynthesis — the process by which plants convert carbon dioxide and water into growth-enabling nutrition — sped up till the year 2000, and then, surprisingly began to stagnate.
The team thinks that while levels of yum-yum carbon dioxide should’ve continued helping photosynthesis, a distinct lack of water might’ve bottlenecked the process. These drier conditions are another peril climate change is famously notorious for.
A clear shift in the green hue of plants from satellite imagery and dropping water levels all but confirmed this hypothesis. Furthermore, the researchers think that the rate of photosynthesis could eventually stagnate completely, making it extremely difficult to keep emissions in check.
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Add the fact that studies have estimated that forests in different parts of the world could end up as net carbon emitters in the next few decades, and this is becoming a serious problem we need to tackle immediately.
However, things were going well for these forests for a good while. The surplus carbon dioxide in the air had pushed plants to grow rapidly, adding leaf cover to span an area twice the size of the United States since 1982. But all good things come to an end, with humans unequivocally at fault for this one.
The findings of this research have been published in Science and can be accessed here.
NOTE – This article was originally published in weather and can be viewed here
Tags: #carbon, #carbondioxide, #climate, #climatechange, #environment, #food, #forest, #getgreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #humans, #nature, #planet
