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Satellite data shows the per cent amount that foliage cover has changed around the world from 1982 to 2010.
Credit: Image courtesy of CSIRO Australia
Increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have helped boost green foliage across the world's arid regions over the past 30 years through a process called CO2fertilisation, according to CSIRO research.
In findings based on satellite observations, CSIRO, in collaboration with the Australian National University (ANU), found that this CO2fertilisation correlated with an 11 per cent increase in foliage cover from 1982-2010 across parts of the arid areas studied in Australia, North America, the Middle East and Africa, according to CSIRO research scientist, Dr Randall Donohue.
"In Australia, our native vegetation is superbly adapted to surviving in arid environments and it consequently uses water very efficiently," Dr Donohue said. "Australian vegetation seems quite sensitive to CO2 fertilisation.
Rising CO2 levels are re-greening Africa's deserts, bringing abundance that lifts people out of poverty
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130708103521.htm