Common reeds, found in wetlands all over Australia, just love that extra CO2:
Plant Growth Database (23 April 2015)
Our latest result of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature is for the Common Reed (Eller et al., 2014)…
Now that’s what I call a good result for all that extra CO2.
Individual Experiment Results
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Experimental Conditions
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300 ppm
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600 ppm
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900 ppm
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Eller et al. (2014) |
The average of two genotypes representing two lineages (Delta-type, Mediterranean lineage; and EU-type, Eurasian lineage) grown in walk-in growth chambers under a 24/17°C day/night temperature regime (elevated temperature conditions) and at a soil salinity concentration of 0‰
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435%
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Eller et al. (2014) |
The average of two genotypes representing two lineages (Delta-type, Mediterranean lineage; and EU-type, Eurasian lineage) grown in walk-in growth chambers under a 24/17°C day/night temperature regime (elevated temperature conditions) and at a soil salinity concentration of 20‰
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385%
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This experiment confounded increasing CO2 levels with increased temperature, so it is not possible to separate the affects of CO2 levels from temperature.
The experiments were done on two non native species (i.e. weeds) of invasive reeds. The paper referred to other research showing that the native reeds do not respond as well to CO2, so that an increase in CO2 will see the weeds become more dominant over the native plants.
The conclusion…….these weeds will do better under climate change.
In my neck of the woods, and in my part time occupation of growing native plants, the native plants are doing very well, however the increase in weeds at the same time is giving landscapers here extra work, and a bigger labour force to remove them. Seems like a win, win, to me.