Earth is rapidly greening because of CO2 fertilization (NASA study)

[Qwark]

haxxiy said:

Qwark said:

It has been a long known fact that higher CO2 concentrations improve the growth of plants. Most greenhouses in NL get CO2 supplied from the harbor of Rotterdam. Anyway salt water infiltration will also kill a lot of plant life and floodings will cause the soils to cause more salt. And salt isn't exactly a thing most plant species endure very well.

Anywho as other said CO2 also causes oceans to accidify which causes corals to bleach and nearly a third off al fish species need coral to survive. Also the exo skeletons of shell fish and krill are desolving because of this acidification. So if anything climate change will rather cause the 6th mass extinction than a new bloom of life.

So the only sector really happy with this are farmers and companies that cultivate wood for furniture.

This is possibly false, since it has been implied the acids used to simulate the more acid water of warmer oceans doesn't lead to accurate results, and certain animals might calcify more, not less, in the presence of more CO2.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/320/5874/336

Such data is consistent with the absence of mass extinction of corals back on the Cretaceous or the P-E, when temperatures were more than 10º C warmer than the present and sea temperatures might have casually risen above 35º C on tropical waters.

Of course, that doesn't mean it won't face another issues such as bleaching etc. but, really, plastic polution, overfishing and commercial navigation are much, much larger issues on all likehood to marine ecosystems, and issues which doesn't get the same level of attention on top of that.

Well organisms do adapt to climate change, this one is a little different. Mainly due to the speed of the change. There are species which already have evolved the last decade to addapt and have a thicker shell than a few decades ago. Although it also makes them slower so it's a trade-off.

Anyway its a combination off all things which will cause massive damage to the seas. Algae bloom caused by over fertilisation doesnt help either, since the algea neccesary to build coral compete with other weeds and algea.

Fishing also severely damages coral reefs and the effect of microplastics and pesticides/chemical dumps in the ocean probably isn't helping either. However acidification does stack since corals recover faster the higher the Ph value of the waters.

Although the rate the ocean is acidifying and the climate changing has pretty much never occurred, outside of other mass extinction events such as when the asteroid stirked which eliminated the dinosaur and the aftermath of that event. The corals might survive the acidification, although large reefs are already severly damaged, especially in the Caribbean area.

So in the end acidification alone might ir might not let corals go extinct. We simply don't know because of the current rate of climate change and accidfication is way faster than before and evolution, as effictive as it is fir organisms to addapt to extreme conditions needs a lot of time.

So while accidification even at the current rate alone might not be enough to nake coral reefs go extinct. Its pretty safe to assume it makes reefs more vulnerable and that might just be enough to lower the tipping point of no return low enough for all the other cap we do, for us to surpass that tipping point.

 

Although I would rather not take chances of losing any major reef because off acidification. Bleaching is still a major issue for a big part of the great barrier reef, along with an abbundance of plastic and nutrients. Over fishing is somewhat controlled in Australia.

Last edited by Qwark - on 25 February 2018