How does rising atmospheric CO2 affect marine organisms?

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Volume 5 Number 14:  3 April 2002

Temperature Record of the Week
This issue's Temperature Record of the week is from Kinston, North Carolina. Visit our U.S. Climate Data section to plot and view these data for yourself.

Current Editorial
New Studies Erode Confidence in Climate Model Predictions: The only substantive reason anyone has for believing we need the Kyoto Protocol is that most climate models predict the earth will experience near-catastrophic warming in response to a doubling of the atmosphere's pre-industrial CO2 concentration.  Newly acquired evidence, however, indicates that even the best of these models are incapable of reproducing real-world atmospheric changes observed over the past two decades, making us wonder why anyone would believe what they say about the longer-term future.

Subject Index Summaries
Hurricanes (Global): Climate alarmists hyperventilate when a tropical cyclone or hurricane passes over a populated region.  If there is damage to be found, they find it; and as we are shown the destruction on television, they issue dire warnings that coastal regions will suffer even worse buffetings in the future, as they solemnly proclaim that hurricane frequency and intensity will rise dramatically as a consequence of CO2-induced global warming.  So what's the real story?

Trees (Type - Tropical): A brief review of the recently published literature suggests that increases in the air's CO2 content will enhance photosynthetic rates and biomass production in tropical and sub-tropical trees.

Carbon Sequestration Commentary
The Highly-Hyped "No Regrets" Aspect of Carbon Sequestration Misses Its Real Significance: If you're going to trust someone about the merits of sequestering carbon in the planet's soils, put your trust in those who work close to the land ... and get their hands dirty doing it.  Soil scientists are such people; they know what they're talking about.

Current Journal Reviews
The U.S. Hurricane - El Niņo Connection: Climate alarmists typically claim that weather-related disasters, such as hurricanes, are exacerbated during El Niņo conditions.  A century of El Niņo and U.S. hurricane data, however, tells a very different story.

A Century of Great Plains Precipitation: As ever more hydrologic data are obtained and analyzed, they paint an increasingly brighter picture of our climatic future ... courtesy - dare we say - of unprecedented global warming?

Effects of Elevated CO2 on Water-Use Efficiency in Beech and Spruce Stands: Atmospheric CO2 enrichment generally increases water-use efficiency at the level of individual leaves; but does it do so at the ecosystem level in mixed stands of beech and spruce?

Effects of Elevated CO2 on Transpiration in a Mature Sweetgum Stand: Atmospheric CO2 enrichment generally reduces stomatal conductance and transpiration in individual leaves; but are these effects maintained at the canopy level?  That was the question investigated in this FACE experiment, which was conducted on mature sweetgum trees.

Effects of Elevated CO2 on Gas Exchange in Kiwifruit: At ambient atmospheric CO2 concentrations, leaves on mature kiwifruit vines often display depressed rates of photosynthesis beginning around 0900 in the morning.  Can this depression in growth potential be alleviated by atmospheric CO2 enrichment?