How does rising atmospheric CO2 affect marine organisms?

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Volume 5 Number 48:  27 November 2002

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

Current Editorial
In the wake of our 30 October 2002 editorial criticism of Irakli Loladze's Trends in Ecology & Evolution paper and his 20 November 2002 response to that criticism, we make some additional remarks about the subject in this week's Main Editorial (How Will Future CO2-Enriched Air Affect Human Health?), after which we present a Sub-Editorial we have written in collaboration with Loladze in which we jointly address areas of significant overlap in our individual views on the important subject of human well-being in a CO2-enriched world (Researchers Must Pay More Attention to The Role of CO2 in Human Nutrition and Health).

Subject Index Summaries
Effects of Ozone on Plants (Tree Species): A brief review of some of the recent scientific literature suggests that the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content is just the antidote plants need to ward of the deleterious effects of increasing tropospheric ozone concentrations.

Streamflow (Recent Trends): Will the world as we know it be washed away as a result of global warming-induced increases in streamflow?  Or will it dry up and blow away?  Or will it somehow muddle along pretty much as it has in the past?

Carbon Sequestration Commentary
Global Warming: How It May Impact Soil Carbon Storage by Reducing the Frequency and Severity of Freezing: New research shows that more frequent and more severe freezing leads to more CO2 being released to the atmosphere when soils thaw.  In a gradually warming world, therefore, there is a tendency for less CO2 to be released to the atmosphere each year, as freezing events become less numerous and less severe.

Current Journal Reviews
Solar Forcing of Climate: Is It Significant?: It has been very important in the past and will likely be very important in the future.

The Little Ice Age at the Bottom of the World: If the Little Ice Age was merely a regional phenomenon experienced by countries bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, as climate alarmists would have one believe, why does it appear in ice core records as far away as Antarctica?

How Imminent Is the Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet?: Obviously, nobody knows for sure.  But if it's never happened before, it's a good bet it won't happen anytime soon.

Long-Term Effects of Elevated CO2 on Photosynthesis in Norway Spruce Trees: Some species of plants exhibit various degrees of photosynthetic acclimation after long-term exposure to elevated CO2 concentrations.  Are mature Norway spruce trees one of those species?  And if they are, is the acclimation response strong enough to totally thwart the growth stimulation normally provided by atmospheric CO2 enrichment?  No way!

Effects of Elevated CO2 on Pineapple: Few studies have investigated the impact of elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 on CAM plants.  The authors of this paper add to our limited knowledge in this area by reporting the effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment on the most commercially important CAM species of all - pineapple.