The Venerable and dangerous Poison Oak............
Posted on 05/30/2006 1:03:10 PM PDT by billorites
Another reason to worry about global warming: more and itchier poison ivy.
The noxious vine grows faster and bigger as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, researchers report Monday.
And a CO2-driven vine also produces more of its rash-causing chemical, urushiol, conclude experiments conducted in a forest at Duke University where scientists increased carbon-dioxide levels to those expected in 2050.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, a chemical that traps heat similar to the way a greenhouse does, that is considered a major contributor to global warming. Greenhouse gases have been steadily increasing in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.
Poison ivy is common in woods around the country, making it a bane of hikers, campers, fighters of forest fires, even backyard gardeners. Its itchy, sometimes blistering rash is one of the most widely reported ailments to poison-control centers, with more than 350,000 reported cases a year.
Compared to poison ivy grown in usual atmospheric conditions, those exposed to the extra-high carbon dioxide grew about three times larger, and produced more allergenic form of urushiol, scientists from Duke and Harvard University reported.
Their study appears in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The fertilization effect of rising CO2 on poison ivy ... and the shift toward a more allergenic form of urushiol have important implications for the future health of both humans and forests," the study concludes, reports AP.
How gullible do they take us to be?
Poison Ivy grows in forests. What do the trees surrounding the ivy do? They absorb CO2 and produce oxygen.
So, if the CO2 levels are higher doesn't that benefit the trees? And, at the same time limit the CO2 available to the ivy?
Golly. Don't they know that some people can use logic?
The old adage "Leaves of three, leave it be." works for me.......BTW, a local park here had a homo problem after dark, so they put up signs all over the trails that there was Poison Ivy in there...........
The Venerable and dangerous Poison Oak............
........and YOU knew this because?.............
Now I have to find that yellow jacket nest that had sentries on my trail this morning.
Whatever you do with the cuttings and clippings, DON'T BURN THEM!!!!!!!..............
Try Roundup, it kills the roots..........
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LOL! Me too. I spied it in the rain, at night from about 20 paces and it was only an inch sprout!
Last year was the first time I've ever broken out from poison ivy. Boy that was awful. Anyway, now I have just about rid the yard of it, including some vining up a tree. I go around about once a week with the brush-b-gone.
Of course, our neighbors are trying to land in the recordbooks for the most poison ivy in a set area. I've killed back there's from our property.
I told the head groundskeeper at work that I would tote Round Up with me if he wanted, and I would kill it I come across it.
Hubby thinks I'm a tad obsessed. I call it preventative measures. With 3 boys, I sure don't want one of them getting poison ivy, oldest already had it this year, on his neck and face.
Sorry for the rambling post.
Admittedly, I was at the gym, but I did a double take on the Today Show numbers. I'd swear the reporter said "350" cases, and that's what the closed captioning said as well.
I was wondering, "350 cases, what's the big deal?"
These studies were begun to see if the plants would respond with more rapid growth and greater sequestration of carbon thereby turning bad carbon dioxide into a good thing; a biological lemonade stand, so to speak; about two years ago this preliminary data was released on the Net:
"February 17, 2004
Plants Will Grow More Rapidly With Higher Carbon Dioxide
Soy will grow more rapidly in higher CO2.
Although ozone slows plant growth, the beneficial effect of the carbon dioxide more than compensates for this effect, Leakey found. His unpublished results predict an increase in soy yields of 13% by 2050. US farmers currently plant about 150 million acres of soybean a year.
The following press release emphasies that the increased plant growth in the presence of higher CO2 is not enough to take all the CO2 out of the atmosphere. But the fact that the trees and plants grow more rapidly is economically valuable.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Feb. 16, 2004 -- Trees absorb more carbon dioxide when the amount in the atmosphere is higher, but the increase is unlikely to offset the higher levels of CO2, according to results from large-scale experiments conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and elsewhere.
"Some people have used carbon dioxide fertilization to argue that this is a boon of the fossil fuel era and that it will lead to greater agricultural yields and carbon sinks," said Richard Norby of the Department of Energy's ORNL. "Some recent experiments, however, have suggested that there will be no lasting effect of carbon dioxide fertilization. As is often the case, the truth may lie in between."
Norby is among several scientists participating in a panel discussion titled "CO2 Fertilization: Boon or Bust?" Feb. 16 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Seattle.
For the last six years, Norby and colleagues at ORNL have examined the responses to elevated carbon dioxide levels in a stand of sweetgum trees a few miles from ORNL. The experiment consisted of pumping tons of carbon dioxide into the plots, raising the concentration of carbon dioxide in the tree stand from the ambient level of about 370 parts per million to 550 ppm, and studying the effects.
...
In every year since the FACE project began, net primary productivity, which is the total amount of carbon dioxide fixed into organic matter such as leaves, stems and roots, has been higher in plots given extra carbon dioxide. The average increase has been 24 percent, and there is no indication that the increase will not continue. But, Norby notes, while his colleagues have observed a sustained increase in leaf photosynthesis, the response to carbon dioxide fertilization would not be apparent if only above-ground growth were measured. Wood production increased significantly during only the first year of treatment.
While Norby and colleagues have learned a great deal about above-ground allocation of carbon dioxide, in recent years they have focused their efforts on impacts on fine roots and soil sequestration of carbon dioxide. Fine root production has increased substantially in response to elevated carbon dioxide.
Fine roots are important for water and nutrient uptake, but they have a short life and their carbon returns to the soil within a year. Initial results suggest that the increase in carbon supply to fine roots has increased the carbon content of the soil. Norby cautions, however, that the positive effect of carbon dioxide fertilization is insufficient to halt the rising level of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
If some types of forest trees will grow more rapidly then higher atmospheric CO2 holds the prospect of lowering timber costs and hence of lowering housing and furniture costs.
Another forest experiment shows CO2 raises tree growth rates.
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.
"In a dry year trees naturally grow less so the amount of nitrogen doesn't make any difference," he said. "In a wet year, when there's plenty of water, the amount of nitrogen does make a difference." Tree growth depends on the availability of nitrogen, which foresters routinely add to Southeastern soils in the form of fertilizer when they plant trees, he added.
One advantage the plants may have in dry years is that with more CO2 in the atmosphere the leaves do not have to open their pores as much to let in the CO2. This reduces water loss from evaporation and allows plants to grow in dry environments. This explanation has been put forward to explain plant growth into the Negev desert in Israel........................
The really bad news? More poison ivy:......................
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.
It seems likely that the growth increase caused by higher CO2 will differ by tree species. Some will experience larger increases in growth rates and others will benefit from higher CO2 to a lesser extent. Also, since water is more of a rate-limiting factor in some areas and less in other areas the extent of the benefit of higher CO2 in terms of faster growth in lower water conditions will be greater in some geographic regions and less in other regions. Higher CO2 probably will increase total tree cover in drier areas and may even make it possible to grow trees into deserts as appears to be happening with the Negev.
Another factor to consider: It should be possible to select for or genetically engineer crop plants that will grow even faster in higher CO2 conditions. So the extent of the benefit of high CO2 seen with existing crop plants understates the size of the benefit likely to be achievable in the longer run.
Of course, higher atmospheric CO2 levels will cause many other effects. If higher CO2 raises global temperatures it could change precipitation patterns, total global precipitation, length of growing seasons (generally longer), wind patterns, and other many other factors. How will all this work out in terms of benefits and costs? It seems impossible at this point to hazard a guess that will have any degree of accuracy. But it seems clear that rising atmospheric CO2 will generate not just costs but benefits as well."
By Randall Parker at 2004 February 17 03:22 PM Trends Climate | TrackBack
Comparing the above with this weekend's news release it would seem that the spin is in full tilt so far.
An infusion of jewelweed eliminates the symptoms of poison ivy quickly, and increased CO2 also aids the growth of trees and flowers. No croaking; life is like that - the glass is either half full or half empty. Try to enjoy it.
I was peripherally involved in an ag experiment once where the seedlings (iceburg lettuce) were put under a transparent tent and the atmosphere inside the tent was enriched in CO2 to 5% by volume CO2 (about 12 times current atmospheric concentration IIRC). Tenting the lettuce allowed three crops in the same time it took to produce 1 crop in the normal atmosphere. Increased CO2 is hoovered up by plant life.
Important addition: the symptoms of poison ivy are quickly eliminated by an infusion of jewelweed APPLIED LOCALLY; DON'T DRINK IT!!!
I would have been tempted to forego the signs and just plant it all over the place. But that's just me.
Obviously George Bush's fault ...women and minorities are most affected by this environmental scourge. Besides Bush is doing nothing to protect us from manbearpig. (sarcasm)
Poison ivy and Virginia creeper are quite dissimilar. VC has leaves that cluster in fives, not threes.
In Texas, there are 7 types of poison ivy. Some have sets of 5 or 7 leafs.
I guess We should think about moving farms closer to big cities.
Your not going to believe what happened!! While I was out someone used this computer to access FR. Ignore all posts from today. (he he)
I think I just didn't get it all the last time around. It was pretty prolific and low growing so I probably missed some.
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