How does rising atmospheric CO2 affect marine organisms?

Click to locate material archived on our website by topic


Volume 4 Number 41:  10 October 2001

Temperature Record of the Week
This issue's Temperature Record of the week is from Albany, Texas. Visit our U.S. Climate Data section to plot and view these data for yourself.

Current Editorial
Yet Another Biophysical Feedback Mechanism that May Help to Protect the Planet Against Deleterious CO2-Induced Global Warming: As ever more scientific knowledge is accumulated, it is becoming increasingly clear that the earth possesses a vast array of natural mechanisms for stabilizing planetary air temperatures in the face of continuing increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.

Subject Index Summaries
Growth Response to CO2 with Other Variables (Nutrients - General): As the air's CO2 content rises, most plants will exhibit increased rates of photosynthesis and biomass production, even when growing on soils of less than optimal fertility.

Weather Extremes (General): One of the most common claims of climate alarmists is that rising temperatures promote extreme weather of nearly all types.  Is this claim true?  One way to find out is to search for either direct or proxy records of various weather phenomena over periods of time when temperatures are known to have increased.  These data resolve the issue, and resoundingly so.

Current Journal Reviews
Winter in the Northern Baltic Sea: Why doesn't somebody tell the Baltic Sea that the 20th century was supposed to have experienced a warming that is unprecedented over the past millennium?  Ice break-up dates for the port of Riga, Latvia, seem to indicate just the opposite of what would be expected under such conditions.  The uncooperative region clearly needs to get with the program of the climate alarmists.

A Tale of Two Temperature Trends: The temperature history of the United States from 1910 to 1997 is analyzed in such a way as to reveal the likely effects (if there are any at all) of the concomitant rise in the air's CO2 content on daily maximum and minimum air temperatures.  Would you believe the results suggest a moderating influence on climate?

A Century of Sea Level Change in the Eastern Indian Ocean: New data obtained from a study of corals raise questions about global sea level rise over the past hundred years, suggesting it may have been much less than what we have long believed on the basis of tide gauge data adjusted for postglacial rebound.

Effects of Elevated CO2 and Soil Nutrition on the Growth of Black Cottonwood Seedlings: Elevated CO2 significantly enhanced the growth of black cottonwood seedlings in southern Iceland, but only on soils of high fertility.

Direct and Indirect Responses of C4 Plants to Elevated CO2: Ambient as opposed to subambient CO2 concentrations increased above- and below-ground dry matter production in two C4 grasses.  However, high soil water content had an even greater effect, suggesting that the anti-transpirant effect of elevated CO2 on plant water loss - and, hence, soil water conservation - may be more important than the direct effect of atmospheric CO2 enrichment on biomass production in C4 species.