Researchers find global plant water use efficiency stalled due to climate change
As climate change causes levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to rapidly rise, scientists have widely believed that the increase might play a role in helping to improve the way plants consume water, known as water use efficiency (WUE). The thought was that higher levels of WUE meant plants were consuming less water but absorbing more atmospheric carbon, increasing growth and helping to lessen the impact of climate change. However, new findings from researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found that water use efficiency has stalled since 2001 which implies not as much CO2 was being taken in by plants and more water was consumed and that could have implications on carbon cycling, agricultural production and water resources.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.