Michaelyya/contrarian-claims huggingface dataset:
The six scientists determined that even following a reduction in seawater pH to 7.4, "the photosynthetic capacity of the symbiosis was preserved." And they say that "this along with the unaffected anemone respiration rates indicated that the metabolic relationship was also preserved."
The researchers at Woods Hole have spent four years doing a comprehensive study at Palau Rock Islands in the far Western Pacific, where pH levels are naturally ???more acidic?? (which is big-government speak for less alkaline ). Because of laboratory experiments Barkley et al expected to find all kinds of detrimental effects, but instead found a diverse healthy system they describe as ???thriving?? with ???greater coral cover?? and more ???species??.
???Surprisingly, in Palau where the pH is lowest, we see a coral community that hosts more species, and has greater coral cover than in the sites where pH is normal,?? says Anne Cohen, a co-author on the study and Barkley??s advisor at WHOI. ???That??s not to say the coral community is thriving because of it, rather it is thriving despite the low pH, and we need to understand how.??
It is not carbon dioxide from burning coal that pollutes the skies of Asia and Africa. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a naturally occurring, clean, invisible, beneficial gas. CO2 is an essential part of the natural world but a very minor trace constituent of our atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is vital to all life on Earth because no vegetation can exist without it.
The two researchers report that "across all studies, parental e CO 2 increased subsequent germination by 9%," and that "despite a considerable interspecific variability," they found "a positive correlation between germination success and seed mass responses to parental e CO 2 ," with the response being "significantly higher in trees than in other life forms." What it means
Clearly, elevated O 3 has a number of significant negative impacts on the well-being of North America's most widely distributed tree species, while elevated CO 2 has a number of significant positive impacts. In addition, elevated CO 2 often completely eliminates the negative impacts of elevated O 3 . Hence, if the tropospheric O 3 concentration continues to rise in the future - and it is indeed expected to do so (the authors note that "damaging O 3 concentrations currently occur over 29% of the world's temperate and subpolar forests but are predicted to affect fully 60% by 2100") - we had better hope that the air's CO 2 content continues to rise as well. Without it, we will be in a world of hurt; for the authors report that "since the mid-1990s, aspen use has increased almost exponentially in the US Great Lakes Region and in the boreal mixed wood region of Canada, where the resource is now almost fully utilized."
Jin et al . write that the bioavailability of iron to terrestrial plants "is often limited (Guerinot and Yi, 1994), particularly in calcareous soils, which represent 30% of the earth's surface (Imsande, 1998)," and they thus conclude that "Fe nutrition in plants is likely to be affected by the continued elevation of atmospheric CO 2 , which, in turn, will affect crop production." And as their work strongly suggests, those important effects should be highly beneficial, while even wider biospheric benefits are suggested by the work of Sasaki et al . (1998), who have demonstrated that both the ferric reductase activity and Fe uptake capacity of the marine alga Chlorococcum littorale cultured in Fe-limited media have been significantly enhanced by elevated CO 2 concentrations. References
It was determined, according to Sefcik et al ., that "the magnitude of enhancement from exposure to elevated CO 2 was similar for both shade-tolerance groups," with the elevated CO 2 treatment increasing the mean light-saturated net photosynthetic rate by 63% in the shade-tolerant species and by 67% in the shade-intolerant species. More importantly, however, they found that "seedlings grown in deep shade, regardless of shade-tolerance group, showed a greater long-term photosynthetic enhancement to elevated CO 2 than those grown in moderate shade," with the mean long-term enhancement being 47% in moderate shade and a whopping 97% in deep shade. What it means
Although elevated CO 2 did not significantly increase total seedling biomass, it did increase it by 14% when averaged across all temperature and fertilization regimes. However, elevated temperature did significantly increase seedling biomass by 55%, when averaged across all CO 2 and fertilization treatments, as did fertilization, by 157%, when averaging across all CO 2 and temperature levels. With respect to root exudation, a similar pattern emerged. Elevated CO 2 did not significantly increase total dissolved organic carbon compounds exuded from seedling roots over a 24-hour period, yet plants grown in elevated CO 2 exuded 20% more such compounds than ambiently-grown plants did, when averaged across all temperature and fertilization treatments. And once again, elevated temperature and fertilization significantly increased root exudation by 71 and 55%, respectively, when averaged across the other main effect variables.
Soil microorganisms hold a key position in terrestrial ecosystems, as they mineralize organic matter and make its nitrogen available for use by plants. Hence, it is encouraging to note, in the words of the authors, "that elevated CO 2 will enhance below-ground C- and N-cycling in grasslands," even nutrient- poor grasslands, such as the one they studied. Reference
Gutierrez et al .'s findings are perhaps best summed up by the title of their paper: "Acclimation to future atmospheric CO 2 levels increases photochemical efficiency and mitigates photochemistry inhibition by warm temperatures in wheat." They report, for example, that net photosynthesis was increased by 62-72% in both years in the CO 2 -enriched chambers; while at the conclusion of the growing season, total plant biomass production in the CO 2 -enriched chambers was increased by 12-18%. What it means
Two years later, Bunce (2005), grew soybean plants from seed to maturity out-of-doors in open-top chambers exposed to normal precipitation while continuously fumigating them with either ambient air (AC) or with air enriched with an extra 350 ppm of CO 2 either 24 hours per day (ECdn) or 14 hours per day centered on solar noon (ECd) for a total of four entire growing seasons . And this sustained effort, in Bunce's words, revealed that "ECdn increased seed yield by an average of 62% over the four years compared with the ambient CO 2 treatment, while ECd increased seed yield by 34%," indicative of the fact that the CO 2 -induced yield enhancement in the 24-hour CO 2 enrichment treatment was almost twice as great as that of the daylight-only CO 2 enrichment treatment.
In controlled environmental conditions, atmospheric CO 2 enrichment significantly increased the size and biomass of plantlets, thus reducing the time required to produce propagules for transplanting into commercial potato fields. Although economic costs of CO 2 enrichment were not considered in this study, commercial collaborators involved in the research were "pleased with the CO 2 enrichment results."
Elevated CO 2 increased the average steady-state photosynthetic rates of four hardwood understory saplings by 60 and 40% under high and low light conditions, respectively. In going from shaded to lighted conditions, elevated CO 2 had no effect on photosynthetic induction, with ambient and CO 2 -enriched species both reaching 90% of their maximal transient photosynthetic rates at approximately the same time. However, in going from lighted to shaded conditions, elevated CO 2 extended the time during which maximal rates of photosynthesis were maintained. Thus, elevated CO 2 slowed the rate of photosynthetic decline caused by the onset of shading. Consequently, shaded leaves of CO 2 -enriched saplings maintained greater rates of photosynthesis for longer periods of time than did shaded leaves of saplings growing in ambient air, which allowed the CO 2 -enriched leaves to sequester greater amounts of carbon than was expected from photosynthetic measurements made under steady-state conditions.
The minimum acceptable value for plants is not that much below the 270 ppm preindustrial value. It is possible that this is not enough, that we are better off with our current level, and would be better off with more still. There is evidence that California orange groves are about 30 percent more productive today than they were 150 years ago because of the increase of atmospheric CO2.
Increasing the air temperature by 2C increased ecosystem evapotranspiration ; but the imposition of twice-ambient atmospheric CO 2 concentrations reduced this impact of the temperature increase while simultaneously enhancing ecosystem net primary production. Thus, ecosystem water-use efficiency rose under conditions of simultaneously-elevated air temperature and CO 2 concentration. In addition, the air temperature increase had little effect on soil organic carbon content, boosting it by only 1%. Doubling the atmospheric CO 2 concentration, on the other hand, increased soil carbon storage by 5%; and when both air temperature and CO 2 concentration were increased together, the simulated increase in soil carbon content was a full 10%. What it means
As for that CO2 "pollution," there is some other good unreported news for farmers, families, and forest creatures. Satellite images reveal a widespread increase of CO2-fertilized greening over 25% to 50% of the "global vegetated area" over the past 35 years.
With respect to the first of these findings, Laurance et al . conclude that "the increasing forest dynamics, growth and basal area observed are broadly consistent with the CO 2 fertilization hypothesis," while with respect to the second finding they say that "tree mortality peaked, and tree recruitment and growth declined during atypically wet periods," and that "tree growth was fastest during dry periods, when reduced cloudiness might have increased available solar radiation." Consequently, it would appear that the historical increase in the atmosphere's CO 2 concentration, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, has been good for the Amazon's trees, and (very likely) for the rest of the region's plants and animals, even in the face of the local warming of 0.26C per decade that they report for the region since the mid-1970s. References
As the concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere continues to rise, yellow birch seedlings should exhibit increased rates of net photosynthesis, even at higher temperatures, thereby facilitating increased biomass production. With more CO 2 in the air, the beneficial reduction in transpiration and the concomitant rise in water-use efficiency may allow this species to expand its range southward into regions where high summer temperatures and limited rainfall currently discourage its presence. Similarly, yellow birch may also expand northwards, as the additional CO 2 may make seedlings more tolerant to freezing temperatures. Reviewed 1 November 1998
A review paper published in Climate Research finds an increase of CO2 fertilization of 300 ppm would enhance productivity of the world's major crops by 34%- 40%. The paper adds to many other peer-reviewed publications finding, contrary to claims of climate alarmists , that increased CO2 will be a boon to agricultural productivity , as well as confer resistance ofrainforeststo climate change.
This was from a paper from CSIRO last year, Impact of CO2 fertilization on maximum foliage cover across the globes warm, arid environments , which shows just how much foliage cover has increased across most parts of the world since 1982.
Against this backdrop, Ghasemzadeh and Jaafar grew leaf and rhizome extracts from two Malaysian young ginger varieties (Halia Bentong and Halia Bara) under ambient (400 ppm) and elevated (800 ppm) atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, studying their antioxidant and in vitro anticancer activities against two human cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231). According to the two Malaysian researchers who conducted the analysis, the antioxidant activities of the leaf and rhizome extracts were increased significantly by the elevated atmospheric CO 2 concentration; and they found that the greatest enhancement was observed in the leaf extract. In addition, they say their results showed strong inhibitory activity of Malaysian young ginger varieties on human breast cancer cells, indicating that some compounds in Malaysian young ginger varieties possess anticancer activities and may contribute to the therapeutic effect of this medicinal herb.
The EPA regulations are said to be necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2) which the Greens deem to be a pollutant in our atmosphere. It is not a pollutant, despite a Supreme Court decision that identifies it as such, but rather a gas vital to all life on Earth, used by all vegetation for its growth. CO2 is to vegetation what oxygen is to all animal life. Humans, all seven billion of us, exhale CO2!
The five researchers report that both theory and experiments suggest that over the past several decades "plant photosynthesis should have increased in response to increasing CO 2 concentrations, causing increased plant growth and forest biomass." And in this regard they find that "long-term plot data collectively indicate an increase in carbon storage, as well as significant increases in tree growth, mortality, recruitment, and forest dynamism." They also say that satellite measurements "indicate increases in productivity and forest dynamism," and that five Dynamic Global Vegetation Models, incorporating plant physiology, competition, and dynamics, all predict increasing gross primary productivity, net primary productivity, and carbon storage when forced using late-twentieth century climate and atmospheric CO 2 concentration data." In addition, they state that "the predicted increases in carbon storage via the differing methods are all of similar magnitude (0.2% to 0.5% per year)." What it means
The first reason would be to discuss how the rising atmospheric concentration of CO2 a result primarily of the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy is a growing benefit to plant life. This is an appropriate discussion in a dietary context as atmospheric CO2 is a fertilizer that promotes healthier, more productive plants, including crops used directly as food for humans or indirectly as animal feed. It has been estimated that from the atmospheric CO2 enrichment to date, total crop production as increased by 10-15 percent. This is a positive and beneficial outcome and one that most certainly should be included in any discussion of the role of greenhouse gases emissions in diet and nutrition but is inexplicably lacking from such discussion in the DGAC report.
The results of this model study of ecosystem response to elevated air temperature and atmospheric CO 2 enrichment in a high-elevation Rocky Mountain watershed are typical of what is found in nearly all ecosystems: improved water quality, enhanced plant water use efficiency, and higher levels of vegetative productivity, all of which consequences lead to greater plant populations and ecosystem biodiversity.
In concluding, the five researchers say "it is possible, therefore, to enhance the biomass yield of this green manuring crop by elevating the level of CO 2 in the plant canopy." One low-tech way of doing so is suggested by their statement that "plant residues decomposing on the soil surface following mulching may help elevate the level of CO 2 and thus the plant growth," while we suggest that a longer-term strategy would be for the nations of the earth to not overtly strive to reduce anthropogenic CO 2 emissions associated with the burning of fossil fuels; for CO 2 is "the elixir of life."
The Sun that nurtures us will eventually incinerate the Earth. According to an article in PNAS, Earth's entire biota are threatened by the eventual loss of atmospheric carbon dioxide. You see CO 2 is plant food and without it there are no plants. Without plants there are no animals, and that includes human beings (assuming we manage to survive until then). The eventual death of the planetary biosphere due to lack of carbon dioxide tells us some things about the current CO 2 induced global warming hysteria. As S. Franck, C. Bounama, and W. von Bloh put it in Causes and timing of future biosphere extinction in Biogeosciences Discussions :
In the first place, it explicitly takes no account of any future developments in bio-engineering and genetic modification, which are likely to enable farmers to plant drought-resistant crops designed to thrive at warmer temperatures, should these occur. Second, and equally important, it takes no account whatever of another effect of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, and one which is more certain and better documented than the warming effect. Namely, the stimulus to plant growth: what the scientists call the "fertilisation effect". Over the past 30 years or so, the earth has become observably greener, and this has even affected most parts of the Sahel. It is generally agreed that a major contributor to this has been the growth in atmospheric CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels.
Fact 3. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is beneficial. In increasing quantity it causes mild though diminishing warming (useful at a time of a quiet sun and likely near-future planetary cooling) and acts as a valuable plant fertiliser. Extra carbon dioxide helps to shrink the Sahara Desert, green the planet and feed the world. Ergo, carbon dioxide is neither a pollutant nor dangerous, but an environmental benefit.
The scientists begin their article noting that Growth of plants under elevated CO2 frequently leads to increased growth rates, but that was not the focus of their study. Many others have grown tobacco in elevated CO2 and confirmed that tobacco, like virtually every other plant in the world, benefits from higher concentrations of CO2. Matros et al. made a series of measurements on how elevated CO2 impacts nicotine, and they conclude that Cultivation of tobacco plants at elevated CO2 leads to a marked decrease of nicotine, the major nitrogen-rich secondary metabolite in tobacco at lower nitrogen supply and At higher nitrogen supply, nicotine content was not further influenced by CO2. See, if you are trying to quit smoking, elevated CO2 is your friend and it generally acts to lower the nicotine level of the plants!
CO2-Related Genotypic Variation in White Spruce (5 Apr 2011) Observations suggest that highly-CO2-responsive genotypes of a wide variety of earths plants -- from food crops to lumber crops -- could well be selected to take advantage of their genetic ability to optimize their growth in response to projected future increases in the airs CO2 content ... Read More
Simply said, there is no need whatever to reduce CO2 emissions. Carbon dioxide is not "a pollutant" as the EPA claims. It is, along with oxygen for all living creatures, vital to the growth of all vegetation. The more CO2 the better crops yields will occur, healthier forests, and greener lawns. From a purely scientific point of view, it is absurd to reduce emissions.
Elevated soil moisture had little influence on wheat yield, regardless of atmospheric CO 2 and O 3 concentrations. Elevated O 3 concentrations, however, negatively influenced wheat yield at both atmospheric CO 2 concentrations. Nevertheless, grain yield was always higher for plants grown at the elevated CO 2 concentration. Indeed, elevated CO 2 increased grain yield by 21, 7 and 11%, respectively, for each of the three years of the study, indicating that elevated CO 2 concentrations ameliorated some of the negative impacts of O 3 -induced damage on grain yield.
Elevated CO 2 did not significantly impact vegetative growth in three of these weedy species. For Spergula arvensis , however, atmospheric CO 2 enrichment increased maximum leaf length by an average of 15%, regardless of light treatment, and total dry weight by 20 and 68% at full and reduced light levels, respectively. Similarly, elevated CO 2 significantly enhanced reproductive success in only one of these species, by increasing the number of seeds in Poa annua by 50 and 26% at full and reduced light levels, respectively. Thus, CO 2 -induced increases in vegetative biomass do not necessarily lead to increases in reproductive biomass, and CO 2 -induced increases in reproductive biomass do not need to be preceded by increases in vegetative biomass. In contrast to the limited significant effects of elevated CO 2 on vegetative and reproductive growth, reduced light nearly always caused significant decreases in plant vegetative and reproductive success. Moreover, the negative effects of reduced light on these parameters were typically much stronger than any positive effect resulting from atmospheric CO 2 enrichment. Total plant dry weights, for example, decreased by 32 to 62%, depending upon species, when grown in reduced, rather than in full light, while atmospheric CO 2 enrichment only increased total plant dry weights by 2 to 30%. What it means
As the air's CO 2 content continues to rise, poplar trees will likely exhibit increases in growth that will shorten the time from planting to harvest and enhance their importance in the agro-forestry market. Also, with greater productivity and biomass production, significantly more carbon will be sequestered within the woody components of poplar trees and the soils in which they grow, helping to slow the rate of rise of the air's CO 2 content. Thus, the use of Populus species in managed tree plantations would appear to be a promising and prudent cultural practice for future foresters.
First off, plant height, leaf number, leaf area, fresh weight, and dry weight all increased in the elevated CO 2 treatments with respect to values obtained under ambient conditions, regardless of the length of CO 2 exposure (see Table 1 below). Leaf stomatal conductance also benefited at the higher CO 2 level, being reduced by nearly 50% by the end of the 10-week experiment.
Where are the defences of bristlecones as valid proxies in tree ring terms? While we??ve pointed out a number of possible mechanisms for fertilization in the 20th century, the most prominent theory is CO2 fertilization The usual mechanism by which CO2 fertilization is hypothesized to lead to increased ring widths is through increased water use efficiency. Water use efficiency changes are studied in a series of remarkable articles by Xiahung Feng of Dartmouth, of which Tang, Feng and Funkhouser is notable. "Plant water use efficiency" was defined by Farquhar et al 1989 (cited by Tang et al) as the ratio of net carbon fixed to the total water cost. The connection between CO2 fertilization and increased water use efficiency (W) is summarized by Tang et al. as follows:
Among other things, Pardos et al . report that seedling relative growth rate rose 2.2-fold when going from the lowest to the highest combined light-water treatment in the elevated CO 2 environment, but only 1.6-fold when doing so in the ambient CO 2 environment. In addition, they say that "cork oak showed particularly large increases in biomass in response to elevated CO 2 under low-watered and high-illuminated conditions." What it means
Ameye et al . conclude that "if soil moisture is adequate, trees will experience negative effects in photosynthetic performance only with the occurrence of extreme heat waves." And in light of the fact that "elevated CO 2 diminished these negative effects," they opine that "the future climate may not be as detrimental to plant communities as previously assumed."
At a fundamental level, carbon dioxide is the basis of nearly all life on Earth, as it is the primary raw material or food that is utilized by plants to produce the organic matter out of which they construct their tissues.