Food quality will suffer with rising carbon dioxide, field study shows
Monday, April 7, 2014 - 09:31
in Earth & Climate
Climate change is hitting home -- in the pantry, this time. A field study of wheat demonstrates how the nutritional quality of food crops can be diminished when elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide interfere with a plant's ability to process nitrate into proteins. "Several explanations for this decline have been put forward, but this is the first study to demonstrate that elevated carbon dioxide inhibits the conversion of nitrate into protein in a field-grown crop," the lead researcher said.