Could higher CO2 slow biodiversity loss?
“While it is a relief to find out that rising CO2 and nitrogen together may not cause enormous losses of diversity, all losses of diversity are troubling, and in any case this finding does not detract from the urgent need for us to curb CO2 emissions, given the other critical CO2 effects,” says Peter Reich. (Courtesy: Patrick O’Leary) U. MINNESOTA (US)—For years, a global rain of nitrogen from fertilizers and exhaust fumes has been linked to losses of species diversity among communities of plants. However, new research shows that rising CO2 could mitigate the loss of biodiversity brought about by nitrogen pollution.
