A much neglected topic, climate change is upon us - whether we like it or not. Already it has manifested in various ways, most of which we hardly realize. Discovery came out recently with some key indexes, 10 in particular, to show how climate change is already making our planet a lot less livable than before.
Sadly, however, plants may not be one with us in this fight. Recent studies show that what we regard us a primary defense mechanism in our fight to clean up our Planet is actually failing us.
Plants Vs Climate Change
Widely believe as a last bulwark against climate change, plants feed on carbon dioxide, absorbing filthy greenhouse gas produced by humans - growing in the process.
But to be able to function, plants need nutrients that have been found to be wanting resulting in a much incapacitated plant population and an increased incidence of global warming by 2100.
Specifically, plants need nitrogen and phosphorous, the former for making light-absorbing pigment and the latter to build proteins.
More often than not, plants must find these in nature.
However, new nitrogen from the air, approximately 78% nitrogen by volume becomes available to plants via soil bacteria being unable to break it down on their own.
Phosphorous, on the other hand, comes from weathering rocks or from sands blown from deserts.
Possible Failure
However, these two key nutrients may have been unaccounted for in many climate models.
For instance, during the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) only two of 11 models utilized to look at future warming included the effects of a limited nitrogen on plant growth; none considered phosphorous, sadly.
Taking a cue, biogeochemist Wiliam Wieder of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, looked deeper into projections factoring those key nutrients.
What they found out was suprising: Phosphorous and nitrogen from natural sources will not be enough.
The result, average prediction of annual global carbon storage were brought down by 25% compared with the IPCC figures.
Thus begins a vicious cycle where the rate of respiration of carbon-dioxide-exhaling soil microbes would increase in a warmer world making Earth pump out carbon instead of taking it up, notes Science News.
Ultimately, Earth gets warmer and climate change a lot worse.
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