Plants' response to a twofold increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide could put a much stronger brake on global warming than expected.
Greater vegetation growth in hotter, wetter climates leads to more evaporation and transpiration from leaves, and therefore more heat loss from land. Other studies have noted this effect, but Lahouari Bounoua at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and his colleagues built into their modelling study additional feedback effects — such as alterations in plants' photosynthetic activity — that further boost vegetation growth.
They predict that the effects on plants of growing in 700 parts per million of carbon dioxide would reduce expected 30-year temperature rises by around 13% globally.
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Geoscience: How plants check global warming. Nature 468, 602 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/468602b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/468602b
