14 DAY TRIAL // In addition to threatening the low-lying coasts of the world, and bringing about climate changes that would instill extreme weather patterns, global warming will also change water patterns, the way in which land is used, as well as the amount of precipitations that usually befall a certain area. When this happens, plants will start emitting higher amounts of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC), which means that they will be releasing more fragrance. A major scientific investigation has determined that this would then change the way in which plants currently interact, and also defend themselves when faced with dangers such as pests, the BBC News reports.
“The increase is exponential. It may have increased already by 10% in the past 30 years and may increase 30 to 40% with the two to three degrees (Celsius) warming projected for the next decades,” Global Ecology Unit expert and Professor Josep Penuelas, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in Spain, explains. Many of the scientists that took part in the new investigation believe that plants had already begun to emit more fragrance in response to the wave of warming that had been proceeding unstopped for the past few decades.
“Based upon the work reviewed, we can be reasonably sure that climate and global change in general will have an impact on BVOC emissions. The most likely overall impact is an increase in BVOC emissions mostly driven by current warming, and that the altered emissions will affect their physiological and ecological functions and their environmental role,” the researchers write in a paper accompanying their findings, which appears in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Trends in Plant Sciences.
Very few studies have focused until this point on the changes that variations in plant-compound emissions will change ecosystems. Most researchers focused on the way carbon dioxide – as the main greenhouse gas considered responsible for global warming – would influence the world's atmosphere and weather patterns. The new work has also demonstrated that increased temperatures will not only favor the production of BVOC, but will also extend the growing season during which plants develop. This means that vegetation will release these compounds in higher quantities and over prolonged periods of time.