New discovery reveals how diatoms capture CO2 so effectively

Re:New discovery reveals how diatoms capture CO2 so effectively by Reason077 on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @07:45AM (#41913329)

We'd need to be careful not to "overshoot". If the ocean were somehow made into an even more efficient carbon sink, and human CO2 emissions decline significantly in the coming decades, atmospheric CO2 might eventually find a new equilibrium below pre-industrial levels!

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Re:New discovery reveals how diatoms capture CO2 so effectively by euroderf on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @08:42AM (#41913649)

Does atmospheric CO2 act to moderate combustion ? Would your scenario increase (wild)fire risk ?

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Re:New discovery reveals how diatoms capture CO2 so effectively by pbmonster on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @10:24AM (#41914631)

No, but plants need CO2 to do photosynthesis. If atmospheric CO2 concentration falls significantly below 100 ppm, all plants doing C3 photosynthesis (that's pretty much all of the most useful plants, including pretty much all trees) start dying, and only the C4 plants remain.

This would end pretty much all higher life on land.

There are theories that earth was slowly moving towards this point naturally, as across the last 2 million years, CO2 concentration successively decreased with each passing glacial period. Maybe humans inventing fire saved everything!

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Re:New discovery reveals how diatoms capture CO2 so effectively by wongarsu on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @08:54AM (#41913747)

Fire is primarily moderated by the available oxygen. The atmosphere is about 20% oxygen, 0.04% CO2, removing CO2 won't meaningfully impact the oxygen concentration

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