SEATTLE -- A futuristic Duke University simulation of forest growth under the carbon dioxide-enriched atmosphere expected by 2050 does not reinforce the optimism of those who believe trees can absorb that extra CO2 by growing faster, said a spokesman for the experiment.
During seven years of exposure to carbon dioxide concentrations 1½ times higher than today's, test plots of loblolly pines have indeed boosted their annual growth rates by between 10 and 25 percent, found the researchers. But "the highest responses have been in the driest years, and the effect of CO2 has been much less in normal and wet years," said William Schlesinger, a professor of biogeochemistry and dean of Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. These counterintuitive findings suggest that nitrogen deficiencies common to forest soils in the Southeastern United States may limit the abilities of loblolly pine forests to use the extra CO2 to produce more tissues as they take in more of the gas, he said.
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Apart from the impact of nitrogen deficiency and drought, the scientists have found some indication that pine tree growth declined over the years at the high CO2 levels, he said. The trees bathed in high CO2 also added more fine roots, which Schlesinger suggests is just another indicator of low nitrogen. "If trees don't have a lot of nutrients they grow a lot of roots looking for them," he said. Meanwhile, some other species in Duke's CO2-bathed forest plots have grown at faster rates than the loblolly pines, scientists report. Still-unpublished data shows 70 percent growth increases for poison ivy, according to Schlesinger.
There is also evidence that the extra carbon dioxide has induced more underlying rock to weather into soil through dissolution by CO2-produced carbonic acid. While that action would also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and "store" the remnants in the added soil, the impact would be "trivial" compared to expectations from boosted tree growth, Schlesinger said."
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