How does rising atmospheric CO2 affect marine organisms?

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Volume 3 Number 25:  4 October 2000

Editorial
Rising Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Reduce Soil Erosion: Lessons for the New Millennium: Real world observations of soil erosion trends in the United States reveal the beneficent impacts of the historical rise in the air's CO2 concentration on the nation's incalculably valuable soil and water resources, vindicating an experimentally inspired prediction made many years ago by our father and providing an important perspective from which to view model based predictions of impending (or current, as some claim) catastrophic global warming.

Subject Index Summaries
Droughts

Floods

Microorganisms

Journal Reviews
A Hot Time in the Medieval Warm Period in Africa: A high-quality temperature record obtained from a well-dated stalagmite found in a cave in South Africa reveals the Little Ice Age in that part of the world to have been about 1°C cooler than present, while the warmest part of the Medieval Warm Period was as much as 3-4°C warmer than present.  This record is characteristic of many others that reveal these well-known global climatic regimes to have been of much greater significance than certain modern climate reconstructionists would have us believe.

A Five-Century Rainfall Record for the Canadian High Arctic: A 487-year record of rainfall derived from analyses of varved sediments in a Canadian High Arctic lake reveals precipitation to have been more variable and extreme during the coldest parts of the Little Ice Age, contradicting the claims of climate alarmists that the warming that brought the planet out of this cool climatic excursion should be bringing more variable and extreme weather our way.

Elevated CO2 Protects Photosynthesis at High Temperatures: Elevated CO2 increased the thermal tolerance of 15 out of 16 plant species experiencing acute exposure to normally deleterious high temperatures, indicating that when the air's CO2 content rises, most plants like it hot.

The Effects of Elevated CO2 on Secondary Carbon Compounds in Pine: Atmospheric CO2 enrichment increased the concentrations of phenolics in both above- and belowground organs of loblolly pine seedlings.

Effect of Elevated CO2 and Temperature on Rice: Elevated CO2 significantly increased rice grain yield at ambient air temperatures, while it had no effect on yield at air temperatures 4°C above ambient.