'Huge reduction' of water from plants due to higher carbon levels
Jeremy Hancemongabay.com
March 30, 2011
 Stomata are structures that allow plants to exchange gases with the air. Contemporary plants in Florida (bottom) have fewer stomata than their ancestors did a few decades ago (top). Photo by: Emmy Lammertsma. |
Gathering a variety of plant species from Florida researchers looked at the stomata patterns going back 150 years. To capture century-old stomata the researchers looked to a Florida herbarium and dug out plants buried in peat at the time of the American Civil War.
Water released from plants through transpiration makes up around 10% of water vapor in the atmosphere. According to researchers, a loss in transpiration volume could impact rainfall and even the amount of groundwater.
"The carbon cycle is important, but so is the water cycle. If transpiration decreases, there may be more moisture in the ground at first, but if there's less rainfall that may mean there's less moisture in ground eventually," Dilcher says, adding that, "this is part of the hyrdrogeologic cycle. Land plants are a crucially important part of it."
Having discovered that carbon levels impacted plant stomata, the researchers created a model showing that stomata could be reduced by 50% if current carbon dioxide levels double.
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