I just wanted to call attention to yet another critical, but little known, consequence of climate change.
We’re losing our plant nutrients.
Politico has a piece about the work — and struggles — of Irakli Loladze, a mathematician with a fascination for biology. In 1998, he was puzzled, as were the biologists who conducted the experiment, by the odd results they got while working with zooplankton. Zooplankton are microscopic animals that live in the world’s oceans and lakes and rely on algae as their food source.
Scientists found that they could make algae grow faster by shining more light onto them—increasing the food supply for the zooplankton, which should have flourished. But it didn’t work out that way. When the researchers shined more light on the algae, the algae grew faster, and the tiny animals had lots and lots to eat—but at a certain point they started struggling to survive. This was a paradox.
The researchers concluded that even though the algae production had increased, it had a concomitant effect: a decrease in the nutrients. The algae was turning into junk food, and the zooplankton were starving.
It struck Loladze that if increasing the light on the algae made them grow faster, an increase in carbon dioxide might have a similar effect. If this were true, he reasoned, what about the global food supply? Subsequent experiments have been confirming his fears.
Surprisingly, there was virtually no research into the effects of increased carbon dioxide. Fortunately, the problem is beginning to attract is some attention. Let’s hope enough, in time.