18 Jan 2005
Rising CO2 Could Lower Forage Quality

And if it had the effect described in this piece, farmers would simply raise the fertilizer level to fix more nitrogen. Which means, of course, greater costs, and more industrial processes to create the additional fertilizer. Which, of course, adds to the ambient carbon dioxide levels via emmissions ... and requires the farmers to add more fertilizer.

Nature tends to work in a circle, and equations want to balance out. In my programming days, we referred to this kind of thing as the "jello factor" - push the code here, and it wiggles over there. And if you don't understand the equation (the code), you're not going to have any idea of where "over there" is.

Continued elevated carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere may reduce forage quality among the world's grasslands and lead to reduced weight gain among animals, according to Agricultural Research Service scientists and cooperators. Their five-year study was published in the journal Ecological Applications. Plant physiologist Jack A. Morgan led the study with ARS colleagues and cooperators at Colorado State University. Morgan heads the ARS Rangeland Resources Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo.

(link) [Science Blog - Research News in Science, Health, Medicine, Space, Physics and More]

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