3 ms·

Menacing ‘famine weed’ grows more toxic as carbon levels soar

16 points by DanBC 5y ago

CodeWriter23 5y ago
“Julie Wolf at the US Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland, and her colleagues conjectured that surging carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere could have contributed to the weed’s success by providing building blocks for the plant to ramp up its parthenin production.”
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- orf 5y ago
  I think reading the article always helps. > The researchers grew two types of famine weed, one invasive and the other non-invasive, and exposed them to the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide recorded in 1950 and 2020. In the invasive variety, parthenin concentrations peaked at the highest carbon levels
- jzebedee 5y ago
  Only if you leave out the paragraph directly afterwards, where they tested it experimentally: > The researchers grew two types of famine weed, one invasive and the other non-invasive, and exposed them to the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide recorded in 1950 and 2020. In the invasive variety, parthenin concentrations peaked at the highest carbon levels. The results suggest that modern levels of carbon dioxide have contributed to the noxious weed’s toxicity.
  - CodeWriter23 5y ago
    Thanks for pointing that out; I stopped reading at that point. They kind of buried the lede.
nathanaldensr 5y ago
CO2 levels were much higher in the Earth's ancient history, and boy did plants love it. Nice way to cherry pick one specific species, though.
- ericbarrett 5y ago
  My understanding is that, while plants thrive overall, higher CO2 in the atmosphere is expected to “dilute” the nutrients in farm crops because they will grow too fast[0]. These nutrients may already be impacted by industrial agriculture practices[1]. So it’s still not good news for humans. [0] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/140507-crops-nutrition-climate-change-carbon-dioxide-science https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/140507-cr... [1] https://news.utexas.edu/2004/12/01/study-suggests-nutrient-decline-in-garden-crops-over-past-50-years/ https://news.utexas.edu/2004/12/01/study-suggests-nutrient-d...
- masklinn 5y ago
  The problem is that not all plants will win there, and probably not the plants we rely on: for the higher CO2 levels to be useful to a plant, it needs to be growth-bound by carbon acquisition. Guess what no fertiliser I've ever heard of contains? Carbon. Carbon and oxygen are the two things agriculture has no need whatsoever for. If anything, higher carbon level might make agricultural products worse by making the plants grow faster at the cost of nutritional content.
- rickspencer3 5y ago
  I thought the implication of the article, though, based on their research, was that this plant did not use all of the extra CO2 to grow, but used some of it to produce more growth inhibitor which then cause crops to not grow. i.e. the experiment showed that the extra CO2 does not impact all plants in the same way, and does not necessarily impact plants in a way that is to the benefit of crops.
- polotics 5y ago
  Citation needed.
elzbardico 5y ago
I am not a climate change denier, but aren't most plants supposed to have faster growth with increasing C02 levels? And, aren't most toxins made by living beings on this planet carbon based? This kind of stuff is what feeds the conspiracy theorists. it is not helping.
- rickspencer3 5y ago
  I don't think I understand the point you are making about climate change deniers and conspiracy theorists. It seems to me that the article is consistent with the two points you made. The implication of the article is that the extra CO2 in the atmosphere gives this plant an extra edge of other plants because the plants use it to produce more growth inhibiting chemicals rather than only growing more. As a result, in the presence of these plants, crops do not get the benefit of the extra CO2, because their growth is inhibited by the extra inhibitors more than the extra CO2 makes them grow.
  - elzbardico 5y ago
    Let me be more clear. The tone of the article and the menacing on the Title made me uncomfortable. I don't understand why we have to resort to fear instead of reason on important issues.
    - DanBC 5y ago
      It's an invasive species. It's called "famine weed" because it can cause a disastrous collapse in crops. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenium_hysterophorus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenium_hysterophorus > It infests pastures and farmland, causing often disastrous loss of yield, as reflected in common names such as famine weed. It aggressively colonises disturbed ground. It is one of the hundred most invasive species in the world. It causes huge losses in crop production. https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/45573 https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/45573 > arthenium hysterophorus is an annual herb that aggressively colonizes disturbed sites. It is considered as one of the ‘100 most invasive species in the world’ by the IUCN > In India, the yield losses are reported as up to 40% in several crops and a 90% reduction of forage production (Gnanavel, 2013). Parthenium hysterophorus is now being reported from India as a serious problem in cotton, groundnuts, potatoes and sorghum, as well as in more traditional crops such as okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), brinjal (Solanum melongena), chickpea and sesame (Kohli and Rani, 1994), and is also proving to be problematic in a range of orchard crops, including vineyards, olives, cashew, coconut, guava, mango and papaya (Tripathi et al., 1991; Mahadevappa, 1997; Gnanavel, 2013). They are not fear mongering. This is a calm, evidence based, bit of research about a very worrying species.
superduperycomb 5y ago
I’m a skeptic of this, but couldn’t you control oxygen levels in industrial scale indoor grows? Edit: this isn’t cannabis. Keeping post because lol

16 points by DanBC 5y ago

“Julie Wolf at the US Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland, and her colleagues conjectured that surging carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere could have contributed to the weed’s success by providing building blocks for the plant to ramp up its parthenin production.”

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
orf 5y ago
I think reading the article always helps. > The researchers grew two types of famine weed, one invasive and the other non-invasive, and exposed them to the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide recorded in 1950 and 2020. In the invasive variety, parthenin concentrations peaked at the highest carbon levels
jzebedee 5y ago
Only if you leave out the paragraph directly afterwards, where they tested it experimentally: > The researchers grew two types of famine weed, one invasive and the other non-invasive, and exposed them to the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide recorded in 1950 and 2020. In the invasive variety, parthenin concentrations peaked at the highest carbon levels. The results suggest that modern levels of carbon dioxide have contributed to the noxious weed’s toxicity.
- CodeWriter23 5y ago
  Thanks for pointing that out; I stopped reading at that point. They kind of buried the lede.

nathanaldensr 5y ago

CO2 levels were much higher in the Earth's ancient history, and boy did plants love it. Nice way to cherry pick one specific species, though.

ericbarrett 5y ago
My understanding is that, while plants thrive overall, higher CO2 in the atmosphere is expected to “dilute” the nutrients in farm crops because they will grow too fast[0]. These nutrients may already be impacted by industrial agriculture practices[1]. So it’s still not good news for humans. [0] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/140507-crops-nutrition-climate-change-carbon-dioxide-science https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/140507-cr... [1] https://news.utexas.edu/2004/12/01/study-suggests-nutrient-decline-in-garden-crops-over-past-50-years/ https://news.utexas.edu/2004/12/01/study-suggests-nutrient-d...
masklinn 5y ago
The problem is that not all plants will win there, and probably not the plants we rely on: for the higher CO2 levels to be useful to a plant, it needs to be growth-bound by carbon acquisition. Guess what no fertiliser I've ever heard of contains? Carbon. Carbon and oxygen are the two things agriculture has no need whatsoever for. If anything, higher carbon level might make agricultural products worse by making the plants grow faster at the cost of nutritional content.
rickspencer3 5y ago
I thought the implication of the article, though, based on their research, was that this plant did not use all of the extra CO2 to grow, but used some of it to produce more growth inhibitor which then cause crops to not grow. i.e. the experiment showed that the extra CO2 does not impact all plants in the same way, and does not necessarily impact plants in a way that is to the benefit of crops.
polotics 5y ago
Citation needed.

elzbardico 5y ago

I am not a climate change denier, but aren't most plants supposed to have faster growth with increasing C02 levels? And, aren't most toxins made by living beings on this planet carbon based? This kind of stuff is what feeds the conspiracy theorists. it is not helping.

rickspencer3 5y ago
I don't think I understand the point you are making about climate change deniers and conspiracy theorists. It seems to me that the article is consistent with the two points you made. The implication of the article is that the extra CO2 in the atmosphere gives this plant an extra edge of other plants because the plants use it to produce more growth inhibiting chemicals rather than only growing more. As a result, in the presence of these plants, crops do not get the benefit of the extra CO2, because their growth is inhibited by the extra inhibitors more than the extra CO2 makes them grow.
- elzbardico 5y ago
  Let me be more clear. The tone of the article and the menacing on the Title made me uncomfortable. I don't understand why we have to resort to fear instead of reason on important issues.
  - DanBC 5y ago
    It's an invasive species. It's called "famine weed" because it can cause a disastrous collapse in crops. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenium_hysterophorus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenium_hysterophorus > It infests pastures and farmland, causing often disastrous loss of yield, as reflected in common names such as famine weed. It aggressively colonises disturbed ground. It is one of the hundred most invasive species in the world. It causes huge losses in crop production. https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/45573 https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/45573 > arthenium hysterophorus is an annual herb that aggressively colonizes disturbed sites. It is considered as one of the ‘100 most invasive species in the world’ by the IUCN > In India, the yield losses are reported as up to 40% in several crops and a 90% reduction of forage production (Gnanavel, 2013). Parthenium hysterophorus is now being reported from India as a serious problem in cotton, groundnuts, potatoes and sorghum, as well as in more traditional crops such as okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), brinjal (Solanum melongena), chickpea and sesame (Kohli and Rani, 1994), and is also proving to be problematic in a range of orchard crops, including vineyards, olives, cashew, coconut, guava, mango and papaya (Tripathi et al., 1991; Mahadevappa, 1997; Gnanavel, 2013). They are not fear mongering. This is a calm, evidence based, bit of research about a very worrying species.

superduperycomb 5y ago

I’m a skeptic of this, but couldn’t you control oxygen levels in industrial scale indoor grows? Edit: this isn’t cannabis. Keeping post because lol