Every year, the amount of carbon dioxide in our air increases. This is causing dangerous climate change, but it鈥檚 also giving plants a little extra carbon to work with 鈥� and some tropical plants are turning it into flowers.
鈥淧lants聽can convert CO2 to energy during photosynthesis,鈥� says at Florida State University in Tallahassee. 鈥淭his study suggests that they are allocating that energy to flowers and聽reproductive activity.鈥�
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Pau works with scientists at the , who聽have been monitoring the forests of Barro Colorado聽Island in Panama since 1987. They noticed that they were gathering more flowers in their traps every year.
At first, they thought warmer temperatures were responsible. But to be sure they compared the relative impacts of rainfall, light, temperature, carbon dioxide and El Ni帽o activity. It turned out that carbon dioxide had the largest effect on long-term changes in flower production. El Ni帽o activity also causes bursts in flowering, because it results in warm and sunny weather, but the effects are temporary.
Flowers flowers everywhere
鈥淚t is聽easy to forget that the entire Earth is experiencing a drastic聽chemical change in our atmosphere,鈥� says Pau. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 see it or feel it, like we do for heat waves or droughts.鈥� She says plants can benefit from higher levels of carbon dioxide, but only 鈥渋f other resources like water and nutrients聽are not limited鈥�, which is only rarely the case.
More flowers is normally a sign of healthier plants. But in this case it also reveals that tropical forests are changing due to climate change, even though the warming they have experienced is relatively minor compared to places like the Arctic.
It鈥檚 unclear whether this increase in flowering actually allows plants to produce more offspring, or whether some species benefit more than others.
The data suggest that some species are maxing out the benefit. 鈥淐anopy trees and lianas have reached a limit in recent years,鈥� says Pau.
Global Change Biology
