CO2 Fertilization improves plant productivity.

The Hockey Shtick reports of a new paper published by the European Geosciences Union's Biogeosciences.

Biogeosciences, 10, 339-355, 2013 www.biogeosciences.net/10/339/2013/ doi:10.5194/bg-10-339-2013
P. B. Holden, N. R. Edwards, D. Gerten and S. Schaphoff

New paper predicts CO2 fertilization will greatly improve plant productivity by 40-60%

A paper published today in Biogeosciences finds that the increase in CO2 levels since 1850 has greatly enhanced plant fertilization and that a doubling of CO2 levels would be predicted to increase plant productivity by 40 - 60%. The study derives "a probabilistic prediction for the globally averaged strength of CO₂ fertilization in nature, for the period 1850 to 2000 AD, implicitly net of other limiting factors such as nutrient availability" and predicts, "the increase in gross primary productivity (GPP) in response to a doubling of CO₂ from pre-industrial values is very likely (90% confidence) to exceed 20%, with a most likely value of 40–60%."