We begin this brief analysis of the effects of global warming and atmospheric CO2 enrichment on Earth’s mammals with a review of the study of Norment et al. (1999)1, who summarized and compared the results of many surveys of mammal populations observed along the Thelon River and its tributaries in the Canadian Northwest Territories from the 1920s through… Read More »
One of the most challenging and important problems facing today’s general circulation models of the atmosphere is how to accurately simulate the physics of earth’s radiative energy balance. Of this task, Harries (2000)1 wrote that “progress is excellent, on-going research is fascinating, but we have still a great deal to understand about the physics of climate.
Trees grown in CO2-enriched air nearly always exhibit increased rates of photosynthesis and biomass production, while trees grown in ozone (O3)-enriched air tend to experience the opposite effects. So what happens when both of these trace constituents of the atmosphere increase together? This question is addressed in the present summary with respect to birch trees.
As the air’s CO2 content rises in response to ever-increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and as more and more carbon dioxide therefore dissolves in the surface waters of the world’s oceans, theoretical reasoning suggests the pH values of the planet’s oceanic waters should be gradually dropping. The IPCC and others postulate that this chain of events, commonly referred to… Read More »
As the air’s CO2 content rises in response to ever-increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and as more and more carbon dioxide therefore dissolves in the surface waters of the world’s oceans, theoretical reasoning suggests the pH values of the planet’s oceanic waters should be gradually dropping. The IPCC and others postulate that this chain of events, commonly referred to… Read More »
Cyanobacteria-also known as blue-green algae, blue-green bacteria or Cyanophyta (the smallest of which, less than two micrometers in diameter, are typically referred to as picocyanobacteria)- obtain their energy through the process of photosynthesis and are thus important primary producers in many areas of the world’s oceans, as well as significant components of the marine nitrogen cycle. This summary… Read More »
In this report, we review the long-term climate history of Utah and find little in the way of evidence that the greenhouse gas build-up in the atmosphere has much altered Utah’s climate. While statewide average temperatures have generally appeared to have risen in Utah over the past 100 years, much of this rise can be attributed to the… Read More »
In a provocative paper they entitled “Food for Thought: Lower-Than-Expected Crop Yield Stimulation with Rising CO2 Concentrations,” Long et al. (2006)1 suggested that future increases in crop production caused by the fertilization effect of the atmosphere’s rising CO2 concentration may be only half as large as what had long been believed would be the case, due to confounding… Read More »
In addition to migrating to more suitable locations, Earth’s plants have other ways of successfully responding to various pressures that might otherwise lead to their extinction. The “acid test” for any extinction hypothesis is to examine what appears to be happening – or what appears to actually have happened – in the real world, which is what is… Read More »
Nearly all agricultural plants benefit from increases in the air’s CO2 content and strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) is no exception.