7 votes

As atmospheric CO² increases plants use less water but it's not all good news

Posted by PlantsMan
Tags: climate change, water, ecology, botany, plants, emissions.carbon, author.pep canadell, author.francis chiew, author.lu zhang, author.yingping wang, source.the conversation
https://theconversation.com/rising-carbon-dioxide-is-making-the-worlds-plants-more-water-wise-79427

Link information

This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.

Title
Rising carbon dioxide is making the world's plants more water-wise
Authors
Pep Canadell, Francis Chiew, Lu Zhang, Yingping Wang
Published
Jul 24 2017
Word count
860 words

2 comments

  1. [2]
    time
    Link
    Hooray! Aw. Interesting that the plants are adapting to the lack of water much more readily than humanity is. It's too bad we're so unwilling to work to mitigate climate change. It's been obvious...

    Our confirmation of a global trend of increasing water use efficiency is a rare piece of good news when it comes to the consequences of global environmental change. It will strengthen plants’ vital role as global carbon sinks, improve food production, and might boost water availability for the well-being of society and the natural world.

    Hooray!

    Yet more efficient water use by the world’s plants will not solve our current or future water scarcity problems.

    Aw.

    Some studies have suggested that the water savings could also lead to increased runoff and therefore excess water availability. For dry Australia, however, more than half (64%) of the rainfall returning to the atmosphere does not go through vegetation, but through direct soil evaporation. This reduces the potential benefit from increased vegetation water use efficiency and the possibility for more water flowing to rivers and reservoirs. In fact, a recent study shows that while semi-arid regions in Australia are greening, they are also consuming more water, causing river flows to fall by 24-28%.

    Our research confirms that plants all over the world are likely to benefit from these increased water savings. However, the question of whether this will translate to more water availability for conservation or for human consumption is much less clear, and will probably vary widely from region to region.

    Interesting that the plants are adapting to the lack of water much more readily than humanity is. It's too bad we're so unwilling to work to mitigate climate change. It's been obvious what's causing it for decades, and yet we do almost nothing to try and maintain the ecosystems that allowed for us to evolve in the first place.

    3 votes
    1. Emerald_Knight
      Link Parent
      Seems natural, though. Most plants, save for crops and garden plants, are generally at the mercy of natural selection with no one around to intervene, forcing them to adapt. We humans tend to get...

      Interesting that the plants are adapting to the lack of water much more readily than humanity is.

      Seems natural, though. Most plants, save for crops and garden plants, are generally at the mercy of natural selection with no one around to intervene, forcing them to adapt. We humans tend to get in the way of natural selection and keep each other alive, however, which prevents evolutionary pressure from allowing us to adapt as a species.

      That's not to say that it's a bad thing, of course, just that it makes sense that we would have such a hard time adapting :)

      2 votes