RE:RE:Rockdoc, not pickin' on Copper Mt. - know nothing about "warming increasing the amount of plant matter on the earth."
This common misunderstanding no doubt due to the fact that in the laboratory plant growth accelerates in higher CO2 environments, however not all plants are our friends. We should remember that “Red Tides” are plants, and tend to be highly toxic to living creatures. Previously a toxic result of algae blooms has been caused an oxygen depletion that produces massive kill off of aquatic life.
The real problem that most have not come to fully appreciate is that plants adapt to a very specific set of conditions including precipitation rates and timing, soil chemistry, solar energy exposure, exposure to wind, availability of pollinators, et. etc. etc. Most plant species have adapted to survive and reproduce under very limited conditions and unlike animals cannot simply pack up and move on.
“High temperatures are unfavorable for the growth of many plant species because the rate of photosynthesis (the basic process plants use to make sugar) begins to decline rapidly after a critical high temperature is reached. It is difficult to define one critical high temperature for landscape plants because it varies with species, however, temperatures in the 90's and 100's undoubtedly slow this important food-making process for many plants. Unfortunately for plants, respiration (the plant process that releases the energy of stored sugars to fuel growth) is not quite as sensitive to high temperatures, and continues day and night, depleting the food reserves of the plant. If extreme heat continues for weeks at a time, plants can actually die from a depletion of their food reserves. Finally, high temperatures may simply cause severe water loss (desiccation) when transpiration (the process by which leaves release water vapor to the atmosphere) exceeds moisture absorption by the roots. As the water content in leaves decreases, leaves wilt slowing the rate of water loss, but this causes leaf temperatures to increase because of reduced evaporative cooling. Again, if unfavorably high temperatures persist, this cycle can worsen so that a portion, or all of the leaf can be killed.”
https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/1995/7-28-1995/hot.html
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