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Names: Bella Piland & Lexi Thomas

Topic: Climate Change Effects on General Plant Growth

Due Date: Monday, May 13th, 8:00-8:30 am

Class: First Period Faith & Science Class

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Pros of Carbon Fertilization Effect/Increase of CO2

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Pros of Carbon Fertilization Effect/Increase of CO2

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According to the article How Climate Change Will Affect Plants by State of the Planet,

1. Plants require carbon dioxide as well as sunlight and water for photosynthesis to occur and therefore produce the nutrients plants require to grow.

2. Increased CO2 in the atmosphere has been found to increase plant photosynthesis.

"New Research has found that between 1982 and 2020, global plant photosynthesis grew 12 percent, tracking CO2 levels in the atmosphere as they rose 17 percent...due to carbon dioxide fertilization" (Cho)

"Increased photosynthesis results in more growth in some plants" (Cho).

According to the article, wheat, rice, and soybeans are expected to benefit greatly from an increase in the photosynthesis process.

As a result, these substantial resources are benefitting, and that benefits our society as we rely on these crops.

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Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. The cause of these changes can be natural, but most of the causes come from human behavior such as the burning of fossil fuels such as gas, oil, and coal.

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Cons of Carbon Fertilization/Excess of CO2

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Cons of Carbon Fertilization/Excess of CO2

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Though increased levels of CO2 as a result of climate change may enable some benefits regarding certain plants there are more factors to consider. Other factors and categories, such as nutrients, temperature, and water, can be negatively affected by climate change.

Nitrogen Deficiency

According to the article How Climate Change Will Affect Plants by State of the Planet,

Plants have been experiencing a decrease of nutrients such as nitrogen as a result of climate change and rising levels of CO2.

Kevin Griffin a Columbia professor explains it like this... ."..most living things have a relatively fixed ratio between carbon and nitrogen. This means that if plants take up more CO2 to create carbohydrates because there’s more CO2 in the atmosphere, the amount of nitrogen in the leaves may be diluted, and a plant’s productivity depends on having enough nitrogen"

“If you increase the CO2 around a leaf or around the plant or around the plot of forest, usually the productivity goes up,” he said. “But whether or not that increase in productivity lasts and is permanent, can be a function of whether you have [enough] nitrogen. So if nitrogen is limited, it could be that a plant just cannot use that extra CO2 and its boost in productivity can be short lived" (Cho).

As a result, an abundance of CO2 seems to benefit only certain plants and can actually be too overbearing regarding a balanced consumption of nitrogen.

If nitrogen is superseded by CO2 and not properly absorbed by plants a nitrogen deficiency could be created.

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Many of the studies into the response of plant life to climate change seem to suggest that most plants will be more stressed and less productive in the future. But there are still many unknowns about how the complex interactions between plant physiology and behavior, resource availability and use, shifting plant communities, and other factors will affect overall plant life in the face of climate change.

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Climate change will bring more frequent and severe extreme weather events, including extreme precipitation, wind disturbance, heat waves, and drought. Extreme precipitation events can disturb plant growth, particularly in recently burned forests, and make plants more vulnerable to flooding and soils to erosion. More frequent high winds can stress tree stands.

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The climate change debate, as it discussed in the mainstream media, appears to be divided into two major sides. One side argues that the current global warming is caused by human factors while the other side insists it is occurring because of natural forces. Either way, plants are being affected.

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Rising Temperatures and Negative Effects

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Rising Temperatures and Negative Effects

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Key Enzyme Becoming Dysfunctional as a Result of Higher Temperatures?

According to the article How Climate Change Will Affect Plants by State of the Planet, Higher temperatures can make enzymes such as Rubisco less efficient.

"Rubisco is the key enzyme that helps turn carbon dioxide into carbohydrates in photosynthesis, but as temperatures go up, it “relaxes” and the shape of its pocket that holds the CO2 gets less precise."

As a result, the photosynthetic process can become sloppy, and as precious resources are wasted, plants are not getting the proper nutrients, and the photosynthetic process for most plants is not becoming more efficient but instead dysfunctional.

According to the article...

"With an even greater temperature increase, Rubisco can completely deactivate" (Cho)

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Additionally, since the plants are able to absorb CO2 more efficiently they are consequently using less water.

"With sufficient water and other nutrients, crop yields can increase significantly" (NASA)

Having more water sources improves plants overall because they can absorb the right amounts of water more effectively, and other plants can use and store the excess.

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“How Climate Change Will Affect Plants.” State of the Planet, news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/01/27/how-climate-change-will-affect-plants/#:~:text=Climate%20change%20will%20bring%20more,flooding%20and%20soils%20to%20erosion. Accessed 12 May 2024.

“NASA at Your Table: Climate Change and Its Environmental Impacts on Crop Growth.” NASA, NASA, 2 Oct. 2023, www.nasa.gov/earth-and-climate/nasa-at-your-table-climate-change-and-its-environmental-impacts-on-crop-growth/#:~:text=More%20carbon%20dioxide%20in%20the,crop%20yields%20can%20increase%20significantly.

“Plants and Climate Change (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/articles/000/plants-climateimpact.htm. Accessed 12 May 2024.

Sanford, Mary, et al. “Controversy around Climate Change Reports: A Case Study of Twitter Responses to the 2019 IPCC Report on Land.” Climatic Change, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2021, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8405718/.

Singh, Brajesh K., et al. “Climate Change Impacts on Plant Pathogens, Food Security and Paths Forward.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 2 May 2023, www.nature.com/articles/s41579-023-00900-7.

“What Is Climate Change? A Really Simple Guide.” BBC News, BBC, 8 Feb. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24021772.