Global warming spurs plant growth - SCIENCE BRIEFING.
By FIONA HARVEY.
220 words
6 June 2003
Financial Times
14
English
(c) 2003 Financial Times Limited. All Rights Reserved
Global warming may be blamed for extreme weather conditions but the cloud appears to have a silver lining: plant growth has increased in the past 20 years, according to a group of scientists in the US.
The researchers, writing in today's edition of Science, the journal, note that global plant productivity has increased by 6 per cent on average. The highest increase was in tropical ecosystems: the Amazonian rainforests made up 42 per cent. This was largely because of diminished cloud cover and a consequent rise in solar radiation in the region, the scientists believe, based on climatic and satellite data collected since 1982.
Increased plant productivity "locks up" carbon into plant cells, removing it from the atmosphere. For that reason, some climate change experts advocate cultivation of "carbon sinks" - large areas of forest that can be offset against production of carbon gases.
However, the report's authors urge caution in interpreting their findings, saying they cannot be sure how the recent increase in plant productivity is affecting long-term storage of carbon. University of Montana, Missoula; tel: 00 1 406 243 4689; www.umt.edu; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California,San Diego, California; tel: 00 1 858 534 2230; www.sio.ucsd.edu
London Edition 1.