Global warming has made the plants grow bigger, as estimated, but less.
According to a study published in the journal Science, the productivity of vegetables has fallen around the world.
Until then, it was thought that higher temperatures would be constantly stimulating plant growth, but the new research, done with data from NASA satellites, the U.S. space agency, indicates otherwise.
The reason is the regional drought, indicates the study by Zhao Maosheng and Steven Running of the University of Montana, according to which the trend in productivity has lasted a decade.
Productivity is a measurement of the rate of photosynthesis process that green plants use to convert solar energy, carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen on the same plant tissue.
The observed decline in the last decade was 1%. Seems small, but, according to the authors of the study, is an alarming sign because of the potential impact on food production and biofuels and the global carbon cycle.
According to the study, although higher temperatures continue to increase productivity in some areas and higher latitudes, tropical forests, accounting for much of terrestrial plant matter, the rise in temperatures has decreased productivity due to water stress and plant respiration that returns carbon to the atmosphere.
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