Researchers from New Zealand analyzed plant fossils from a former lake and discovered that the levels of carbon dioxide at the time exceeded those recorded today. They added that Miocene plants had features that equipped them to grow in drier and hotter climate. With such enhanced plants, the high carbon levels provided a “forest fertilization effect.”
These findings are useful in the context of today’s rising levels of carbon dioxide. With the study’s reconstruction of early Miocene as an analog, they provide a picture of the world several years from now.
The Miocene epoch was a time marked by global warming. It occurred from about 23 to 5.3 million years ago and is credited for the appearance of grasslands and kelp forests, underwater ecosystems that are dense with the plant kelp.
During Miocene, global temperatures rose after a period of global cooling in the preceding epoch. Ice largely disappeared at the poles and land became more arid. It is estimated that Earth was 37-44 F hotter than today.
While experts agree that temperatures rose at the time, the levels of carbon dioxide were hotly debated. Some experts contended that carbon levels were around 300 parts per million (ppm) – near the same amount before the Industrial Revolution started. Others estimated that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 400 ppm, which is around today’s global average.
“Evidence has been building that carbon dioxide was high then, but there have been paradoxes,” said lead author Tammo Reichgelt, a scientist at Columbia University....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...
