NASA: Plant Productivity in a Warming World

NASAexplorer | August 19, 2010

Aloha! This is one more piece of compelling scientific evidence that Human activity and the subsequent effect of Global Warming is adversely impacting our Global Ecology and plant food supply.

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The past decade is the warmest on record since instrumental measurements began in the 1880s. Previous research suggested that in the '80s and '90s, warmer global temperatures and higher levels of precipitation -- factors associated with climate change - were generally good for plant productivity. An updated analysis published this week in Science indicates that as temperatures have continued to rise, the benefits to plants are now overwhelmed by longer and more frequent droughts. High-resolution data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, indicate a net decrease in NPP from 2000-2009, as compared to the previous two decades.

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