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How will rise in greenhouse gases impact forests?
Wisconsin forest – photo by compujeramey (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
Research by scientists in the U.S. state of Wisconsin is pointing to some surprising evidence concerning greenhouse gases. But this is not exactly a study on climate change: the research is an attempt to find out how rising greenhouse gas emissions will affect local forests in about 50 years time.
So far, results show that plants ‘eat’ more when exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide, giving the trees a thicker canopy with larger leaves. However, increases in another greenhouse gas – ozone (O3) – showed rises in mortality, disease and insect attacks among the trees. First the ozone pollution does its damage and then organic pests prey upon the weakened or under-defended vegetation. According to a National Geographic report ‘scientists don’t know whether there is such a thing as too much carbon dioxide or a safe level of ozone’ as far as trees are concerned. Although human waste in it’s highly visible forms – the sort of thing you might see in London skip hire or New York dumpsters – can be very damaging, it is ozone and other greenhouse gases that are making huge changes to our climate and environment.
Besides being a greenhouse gas, ozone is a pollutant that is known to have a negative effect on humans as well as plants – contributing to cardiopulmonary problems such as bronchitis, asthma and heart attacks. Though vehicles and large-scale industrial activity don’t directly emit ozone, it is created when sunlight later reacts with hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides produced by these sources. Ozone is also produced in nature by electrical storms and by some man made electrical devices. Ozone created in laboratories has many uses including water purification and several industrial and consumer applications.
Check out the National Geographic video report below:
Scientists in Wisconsin are discovering that increased greenhouse gases are having some unexpected effects.
by Graham Land
Additional resources:
National Geographic – The Greenhouse Effect
Tags: carbon dioxide, forest, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gases, National Geographic, ozone, research, scientists, Wisconsin
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