Scientists Study Soil Samples to Anticipate Climate Changes

Recently, researchers from the Bringham Young University, the Duke University and the United States Department of Agriculture set out to analyze how ground-based ecosystems react to global increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

This study lead them to the following conclusion: plants and soils interact so as to adapt to the continuous changes in the composition of our atmospheric air.

More precisely, land ecosystems are forever trying to keep up with fluctuating CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

However, their ability to adapt to new environmental conditions is not as powerful as we might want it to be.

Seeing how these ecosystems are the ones in charge with absorbing carbon dioxide emissions, scientists worry that, if for one reason or another, both the plants and the soils become over-saturated with this chemical compound, they will no longer do their job as efficiently as they are supposed to.

According to the Environmental News Network, Richard Gill, a biology professor who participated in this study, explains that “As we forecast what the future is going to look like, with the way we've changed the global atmosphere, often times we overlook soil. The soils matter enormously and the feedbacks that occur in the soil are ultimately going to control the atmosphere.”

To put it bluntly: should we keep over-feeding our plants and our soils with carbon dioxide, they will eventually fail us and simply stop retaining it.

As one can easily guess, this means that the said chemical compound will start to build up in the atmosphere at ever-increasing paces, which in turn will result in more drastic climate changes.

There is no need to explain that this is troublesome news indeed.

Unless we take responsibility for our actions and lend a helping hand to whatever ecosystems are within our reach, our atmosphere will keep on degrading and, before we know it, irreversible damage will be made to our planet.