Intensifying CO2 Levels Cause Earth’s Greening, Study Says

Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were found to have increased plant growth across the earth for the last 30 years. The findings are according to a new study that showed a growth of 18 million square kilometers of the planet being covered by plants.

CO2's fertilizing  impact has caused this increased plant growth, according to lead author from China's Peking University Dr. Zaichun Zhu.  The study, which was published in the journal Nature Climate Change, also revealed that this greening allows the basic change of the water and carbon cycle in the climate change.

These findings were based on the data analysis made from the past three decades taken by three various satellite missions, which measured the green light reflected through photosynthesis. According to Dr. Prep Canadell, co-author of the Global Carbon Project, the remote sensing information was run through 10 worldwide environmental change designs that can determine what is causing the greening, GizMag reported.

With earth's 85 percent of ice-free land that is being covered by plants, photosynthesis soaks up every year a quarter of almost 10 billion tons of carbon which the humans emit. The researchers discovered that the 46 parts per million growth in atmospheric CO2 between the period 1982 and 2009 was a factor in the 50 percent to 70 percent of the greening.

In addition to this, the new study showed other reasons of the greening, like the nitrogen coming from agricultural fertilizers. According to Dr Canadell, the greening has surprised them who expected to discover more browning, considering the rise in droughts linked to  global warming, NASA reported.

Although they discovered between 25 percent to 50 percent of all vegetated portions of the land have turned more green, only 4 percent have become browner. These included Argentina, Mongolia, and parts of North America near Alaska. Though southeastern Australia also indicated browning, the Australian continent as a whole was greening, according to Dr Canadell.