High carbon dioxide “paradoxically” helps barley offset the effects of drought, says a Spanish researcher.
From a Basque Research media release:
The upsurge in droughts is one of the main consequences of climate change, and affects crops in particular. However, Anabel Robredo, a biologist at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), has confirmed that in the case of barley at least, climate change itself is providing it with self-defence mechanisms to tackle a lack of water. Climate change is in fact also responsible for a considerable increase in the concentration of CO2, a gas that, paradoxically, is providing this plant with certain characteristics enabling it to offset the effects of drought. Her thesis is entitled Mecanismos fisiológicos de respuesta de la cebada al impacto de la sequia y el elevado CO2: adaptación al cambio climático (Physiological Response Mechanisms of Barley to the impact of drought and elevated CO2: adaptation to climate change). Various international publications have also echoed this research, the most recent being Environmental and Experimental Botany…
Paradoxically? Have these people never studied anything? High CO2 has been known for years to increase water efficiency of plants. In fact, a reduction in the number of stomata is such a known effect of higher CO2 concentrations that it is one of the proxies used to estimate historical CO2 levels!
Good grief.
A freudian slip Bob.
Climate change is responsible for higher CO2 levels?