In a recent study, researchers have found that elevated carbon dioxide levels are making arid regions greener. They focusing on the southwestern corner of North America, Australia's outback, the Middle East, and some parts of Africa. During the time-span of the study carbon dioxide levels have increased by fourteen percent. In the researched areas vegetation grew by eleven percent in the same time-span. When there is more carbon dioxide in the air, trees take in more carbon dioxide. By doing this, they effectively reduce the amount of water that is released. This process results in the change of leaf color of the trees. This can be viewed by satellites. Now trees are growing in grasslands where trees have never grown. This shows there are many adverse effects of global warming.NOS themes:
Science is collaborative- A group of researchers worked to find the results.
Science is based on evidence- There is satellite evidence of the changes in vegitation.
Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130531105415.htm
This is interesting. In the article linked below, the effect of CO2 on plants is explained further. Although the rise in CO2 levels have caused places to be greener, it also has negative effects on the plants. The rise in CO2 levels has caused plants to photosynthesize faster, but the minerals in the soil aren't plentiful enough to match this speed of photosynthesizing. So does the good out weigh the bad or vise versa?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/effects-of-rising-atmospheric-concentrations-of-carbon-13254108
This article is another argument that global warming isn't such a big deal, humans are just over inflating it because we changed the atmosphere a tiny bit. This is a fascinating article, thank you for sharing. While it does have some beneficial effects, overall global warming is a bad thing because populations aren't adapted to a more carbon rich atmosphere.
ReplyDelete