Carbondioxide does not boost forest growth
Carbondioxide whose chemical symbol is written as CO2 It occurs in Air to the extent of 0.3% by volume. It is present is due to combustion of fuel, respiration of animals, decay of animals and plants and fermentation. It also comes out of the volcanic caves. It is a colorless gas with a faint smell. Aerated water, colas contain CO2 dissolved under pressure and when the bottle is opened the dissolved gas comes out in the form of fizz. It also makes the drinks more palatable. The gas is also used in fire extinguishers as it has the property of inhibiting combustion. However the gas is also having some negative points for the mankind
Levels of atmospheric carbondioxide ,a potent greenhouse gas, have been on the upswing over the last century. How the earth plant life ,particularly the trees ,will react to the change remains unclear. Some researches have proposed however that the rising concentration will spur plant growth and thus allow them to store additional amount of carbondioxide, thereby mitigating the atmospheric increase to some degree. A report published in the journal science disputes this claim. A four year study of a forest in Switzerland indicates that additional carbondioxide does not boost tree growth.
A team of researchers led by Christian Korner of the university of Basel sprayed a 500 square meter patch of deciduous forest with excess carbondioxide for four years.
The mature tree within it were exposed to two tons of extra carbondioxide each day during the six month long season giving them access to almost 50% more of the gas than is currently in the atmosphere,
Overall there was no increase in stem growth or leaf production during the study period although the tree did cycle carbondioxide and release in to the air more quickly .It turns out not all species reacted in the same way to the excess carbondioxide revealing a flaw in earlier studies that focused on a single species.
The experiment still has drawbacks its planner note making it a” compromise between realism and precision “. For one the timescale may still be too short to fully understand the effects of increased carbondioxide .It is also possible that below ground growth of root systems could potentially store additional carbon in the soil .Future work will need to ascertain if the results apply to conifers and tropical trees among other varieties.
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