We know that our planet is undergoing some major changes – after all, we read about new studies, explorations, issues, and ways to help solve the problem every day. But can we really predict what is coming next?Not always. One day we’re on the road to helping, the next day we find we’re doing something else that harms our Earth.

Predictions are difficult, and scientists find it a challenge to deliver a response to the myriad of issues that our planet is currently facing.

New studies

A team at Boston University, including Dr. Abraham Miller-Rushing, are moving forward in this direction, with a recent study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Botany. The study explores how elevating concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) may be affecting our trees, and as a result, the water and carbon cycles.

What we know

Atmospheric CO2 already affects the physiology and behaviour of plants by changing the pores (stomata), among other issues. These pores allow the air, which contains CO2, to pass into the leaf and the water vapour passes out.

The plants use this CO2 to make sugar during photosynthesis.

How it affects it

Because of the increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2, the density of the pores decrease and rates of photosynthesis increase. This means there is also a decrease in water loss through the leaves.

What does this mean?

According to  Miller-Rushing, “These changes in stomatal behavior and water use efficiency can, in turn, have large impacts on plants and can alter ecosystem-scale water and carbon cycling. For example, soil moisture, runoff, and river flows might increase and drought tolerance in individual plants might improve.”

As they understand the responses to how individual trees are affected by climate and atmospheric changes over their lifetimes, they will be able to predict how forests may contribute to changes in water and carbon cycles in the next one hundred years.

The future

“This finding may have important implications for models that predict changes in future climate, carbon, and water cycles,” Miller-Rushing stated. “We also demonstrated a new method that will allow researchers to investigate these questions in greater depth, namely by using herbarium specimens sampled repeatedly from the same trees, as is often done at botanical gardens.”

Source: sciencedaily.com

Miller-Rushing et al. Long-term relationships among atmospheric CO2, stomata, and intrinsic water use efficiency in individual trees. American Journal of Botany, 2009; 96 (10): 1779 DOI: 10.3732/ajb.0800410

Image courtesy of genestho.ca

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