Plants could lose their ability to absorb a lot of CO2, threatening the entire food chain

Plants absorb huge amounts of CO2 globally, but new research suggests that this capacity could decline significantly in the coming years.

The plants that make up the vast ecosystems of our planet play a crucial role in limiting the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere, including what we release each year in droves. Without it, our planet would be almost uninhabitable.

However, a new study by a team at Indiana University in the United States revealed a rather worrying problem when badyzing the amount of nitrogen in some parts of the world. The results, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, showed that in grbadlands and forests – which are not directly fertilized – the availability of nitrogen in plants decreases.

The element is an essential nutrient for the development of plants and is a key ingredient of man-made fertilizers, to such an extent that it is feared that we have caused serious damage to the plant. 39; environment.

The opposite is true

This, according to researcher Lixin Wang, has led to the belief that we have an overabundance of nitrogen whereas in reality, the opposite is the case in natural systems. "In such systems, which cover much of the world, nitrogen demand is growing faster than the supply of nitrogen," Wang said.

The crucial point is that when a plant suffers from a nitrogen deficiency, it is not able to absorb the CO2 levels that it would be in good health.

"We know that factories reliably absorb the CO2 we emit into the environment," Wang said. "But the problem at the moment is that if plants are suffering from more and more nitrogen limitations, it means they will be able to absorb less and less additional CO2."

The lead author of the article, Joseph Craine, for his part insisted on the potential damage that would cause to our planet. "Not only will plants be more stressed for nitrogen," he said, "but plant-eating animals will be the same – less nitrogen in plants means less protein for them." herbivores, which could threaten the entire food chain. "