Global Warming woes are on a rise and scientists all over the world are busy finding alternatives to prevent our planet from a certain disaster. While some of us believe that trees can be the answer to the potential threat caused by carbon emissions, some researchers at Duke University state that to fight global warming we need much more than just trees!
Scientists at the Duke University bathed plots of North Carolina pine trees in extra carbon dioxide every day for 10 years and found that while the trees grew in size, the amount of carbon they sucked up depended on the amount of water and nutrients they received.
A project funded by the Department of Energy, called the Free Air Carbon Enrichment (FACE) experiment compared four pine forests plots that received daily doses of carbon dioxide 1.5 times the current levels of the greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere to four matched plots that did not receive any extra gas. The results showed that the treated trees produced about 20% more biomass on average, but according to these scientists, since water and nutrient availability differed across the plots, averages don’t tell the whole story.
Researchers have also stated that biomass output largely depends on the water and nutrients in the area. If a drought takes hold, trees won’t be able to suck as much carbon dioxide as is required to combat the growing threat of global warming.
Trees need more fertilizers to drink more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but since fertilizers can leave their harmful effects on the environment and the water supply so its use on a large scale is simply impractical.
The best way to restrict global warming is to restrict our own carbon footprint, because now even trees won’t come to rescue us.
Via: Climate Progress
