Yeah. Well if it were that simple.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...-a8342521.html
Basically there are 2 types of plants: those who move CO₂ actively towards an enzyme (RuBisCO) that absorbs it to prevent it from erroneously taking on oxygen and wasting energy, the so-called C4 plants; and plants that do not (C3 plants).
It was thought the C3 plants would benefit from having higher levels of CO₂, but in the long run they don't!
Quote:
Most models of how plant growth and crop yields will be affected by the CO₂ released by burning fossil fuels have assumed that regular C3 plants may perform better. Meanwhile, the RuBisCO in C4 plants already gets enough CO₂ and so increases should have little effect on them. This has been supported by previous short-term studies.
The new Science paper reports data from a project that has been comparing C3 and C4 plants for the past 20 years. Their findings are surprising. As was expected, for the first ten years, C3 grasses grown under extra CO₂ did better – but their C4 equivalents did not.
However, in the second decade of the experiment the situation reversed, with the C3 plants producing less biomass under higher levels of CO₂ and the C4 plants producing more.
It seems that this perplexing result may be because as time went by, less nitrogen was available to fertilise growth of plants in the C3 plots and more in the C4 plots. So the effect was not just due to the plants themselves but also to their interactions with the chemistry of the soil and its microbes.
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So there you have it. It is bad, even for many plants that were expected to benefit due to their C type.
Food crops will thrive, if carefully fertilized.
Natural areas will change.
Over time, bacteria may evolve to bind more nitrogen to compensate. But then phosphorus may run out, key minerals, whatever.
Life, even wildlife, will be sustainable only if properly monitored and supported.
The good news is: we can feed the growing world population; there will be more food available in the future.
The bad news: It is going to take a lot of work...
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