Co2 is the magic gas that makes plant grow

JoNova ^ | April 14th, 2010 | Joanne

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A little under half (typically about 45%) of the dry weight of any plant is carbon, and it almost all that “C” came from CO2 in the atmosphere. No wonder plants love more CO2.

Trees and bushes can grow out of cracks in rocks because they suck the carbon right out of the air. Likewise hydroponics is only possible because the building blocks come from liquid and aerial fertilizer.

CO2 is about the only “pollution” you can pump around plants and watch them grow faster, stronger, taller and indeed more resistant to most of the stresses that normally bother a plant.

Watch these plants grow

The team at CO2science grew seedlings for 42 days in chambers of 450ppm (high) and 1270 ppm (very high) CO2 concentrations. They document the growth of cowpea plants (Vigna unguiculata) via time-lapse photography, and show what most market gardeners know: more CO2 in the air makes for taller, stronger, faster growing plants. Indeed CO2 is one of the essential nutrients for plants, and is often the thing that limits their growth. Pretty much all the plants on earth grow faster when CO2 levels are higher.

In a cornfield the CO2 levels change in the air above the corn, starting at sunrise, as the plants wake up and start photosynthesizing, the levels of CO2 begin to fall in the air over the field. Within an hour the levels start to plummet–dropping 25% by morning tea time. Somewhere around 200ppm the plants slow down and struggle to grow.

Those who say it is “pollution” aren’t into helping plants.

The ingredient plants need most is carbon from CO2. They typically exchange over 2,000 water molecules to grab one CO2 molecule. Plants are desperate for carbon from the air, just like we humans are desperate for oxygen from the air. “No CO2″, implies no plant growth. One of the main roles of water in plant life is just so the plant can exchange it for carbon.

Green the deserts?

When there is more CO2 in the air, the plants don’t need as much water. They become more drought resistant. From the CO2Science Biospheric Summary:

One of the important ramifications of this CO2-induced increase in plant water use efficiency is the fact that it enables plants to grow and reproduce in areas that were previously too dry for them.  With consequent increases in ground cover in these regions, the adverse effects of wind- and water-induced soil erosion are also reduced.  Hence, there is a tendency for desertification to be reversed and for vast tracts of previously unproductive land to become supportive of more abundant animal life, both above- and below-ground, in what could appropriately be called a “greening of the earth.”

The mass of plant matter in the world today is about 6% higher than it was 20 years ago, according to satellites. The deforestation in South America and South Asia is about matched by reforestation in North America, Russia and Europe, and extra CO2 is making for more biomass per square meter

Due to today’s higher CO2 levels, plants on average grow 15% faster than they did 200 years ago (and some major cereals grow 40% faster). Higher CO2 levels are a major part of the green revolution, averting starvation for hundreds of million thinking breathing living human beings.

If the Greens wanted to green the world, the single fastest way to do it, is to raise carbon dioxide levels. O’ the irony.

The short killer summary: The Skeptics Handbook. The most deadly point: The Missing Hot Spot.

[MrB]

Now, the question is WHY do they want a low population -

because you can’t CONTROL a large population.

[Jack Hydrazine]

CO2 is Magic Gas? Who knew?!?!?!

“Magic Gas” sound like a very marketable name to help stop the AGW crowd.

[GraceG]

“Now, the question is WHY do they want a low population -

because you can’t CONTROL a large population. “

99.9% of the greenieweenies think that Humanity is bad bad bad, and that Nature is goood good good, so they think that humans shouldn’t have left the rift valley and should remain at that population level. (they drink the kool-aide and ask for more)

00.1% of the greenieweenies are plotting schemeing NWO type Mammon worshiping control freaks that would love to have their own little kingdoms of people they can control and enslave. (They control the Kool-aide drinkers)

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx !

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[Louis Foxwell]

CO2 is a toxin to animals but a nutrient to plants.
Oxygen is a toxin to plants but nutrition to animals.
There is as much justification to controlling CO2 as there is to controlling Oxygen.
Those seeking to control CO2 are anti plant. Tree huggers unite. Oppose CO2 restrictions.

[Plutarch]

Sunday, February 14, 2010 12:43:11 PM · 16 of 20
Plutarch to ricks_place

Farmers literally use COâ‚‚ as a "greenhouse gas," pumping it into greenhouses to spur growth, and the same effect might be seen on a global scale, said Happer.

I checked this by looking for greenhouse supply sources, and sure enough.

High Output CO2 System

Description

	Deliver growth-boosting CO2 with our user friendly, easy to operate system. With its programmable timer (included), it will automatically maintain ideal CO2 levels for optimum growth. For small to medium size areas.
Growth with CO2		The average level of CO2 in the atmosphere is about 300 PPM (parts per million). If the level decreases down below 200 PPM in an enclosed growing area, plant growth slows to a halt. Through the years of testing and research, the optimum enrichment level of CO2 for plant growth has been agreed to be about 1500 PPM. With CO2 enrichment, under good conditions, plant growth rates and flowering will increase 20-100%. CO2 can be used from seedling right through harvest.

[GraceG]

” The average level of CO2 in the atmosphere is about 300 PPM (parts per million). If the level decreases down below 200 PPM in an enclosed growing area, plant growth slows to a halt. “

The low level of CO2 could very well account for the boom/bust cycle of ice ages we have seen on this planet for the last 40+ million years. Slower plant growth could have also meant not enough plants to feed huge lumbering animals like Dinosaurs/wooly mammoths.

[ml/nj]

I would imagine that Atmospheric CO₂ is also the original source of most of carbon that makes up all of the organic compounds in all animals. (I.e. we eat plants or other animals that ate plants. We don't eat coal.)

ML/NJ

[Hoplite]

Plants also like nitrogen rich fertilizers, so I propose we dismantle our sewage treatment systems, and everybody can just do their business on their lawns.

Yay. I is a science writer!

[bigfootbob]

Funny too, all medical marijuana growers use these things in their grow rooms...Oh the humanity and hypocrisy!
http://www.homeharvest.com/carbondioxideenrichmentgenerator.htm

[count-your-change]

Greenhouse operators have known for many years that flooding a greenhouse with co2 will make their plants grow faster. It's not a secret, just a practice ignored.

[xtinct]

Co2 is the magic gas that makes plant grow = 3rd grade science

[seawolf101]

If we used all of the availible resources wisely like Nuclear, Geothermal, OIl and Natural Gas, we could easily support 20-50 Billion people on this planet. The green weenies don’t want that, they want only 100,000 humans on this planet until the sun burns out and humanity is extinguished.

They used to say that a city or town could not be larger than about 25,000 people and then they invented flushing toilets and sewer systems.

The liberal politicians want to live a privileged life in huge homes with maids and servants and have their private jets and limos and then they use this made up science about global warming so that everyone else has to drive Yugos and Mini Coopers. Al Gore is the poster child of this hypocritical double standard.

[expatpat]

It not only makes plants grow, but also makes bunny rabbits, cows, and people grow. We all ultimately depend on plant life for our food.

[onyx]

Good on you!
My mom loved gardening and she taught me the same.

[expatpat]

CO2 is NOT a toxin to animals. CO is a toxin, but CO2 is neutral.

[Constitution Day]

Damn! Exactly what I was going to post.

PS: I like money. I can't believe you like money too.

[onyx]

He knows better and that’s what is so damn maddening.

[expatpat]

A great deal of CO2 is locked up in limestone rocks. Some think that oil is produced in the earth’s crust when limestone and water are exposed to high temperatures and pressures when limestone is subducted under tectonic plates, toward the hot magma at depth.

[djf]

Chlorophyll:



Hemoglobin: