Hot and Indigestible Carbon Dioxide
Last July, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 408 ppm. In the last 400 million years, a CO2 concentration 300 ppm was considered high. Therefore the high concentration of CO2 we are experiencing now was never reached in the last half billion year. This increase will for sure have an impact on how plants will be growing in the next decades.
Plants are actually happy to have more CO2 available in the atmosphere, more CO2 means more food. CO2 is the basic components of plants and it is actually the base for all biological molecules. Through photosynthesis, plants are able to catch the carbon from the CO2 and put it into chains of carbon also known as carbohydrates or sugar.
The rise of CO2 is expected to increase the rate of photosynthesis and therefore improve global vegetation growth. This greening of the Earth could potentially mitigate climate change by taking carbon out of the atmosphere and store it into trees. Various models have predicted the Earth to become more green in cold areas especially in high mountainous regions. However, even if CO2 is more abundant for plants to grow, water scarcity and soil nutrient deficiency can limit plant growth.
Climate change has other components which may impair plant growth in the future. The global warming coming with the rising CO2 level will reduce the growth of plants.
