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Date: | Wed, 27 Oct 2021 08:35:08 -0700 |
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>Why CO2 rise resulting in less nutrition in plant matter?
This subject is well-discussed in animal nutrition, and with human
nutrition for populations that depend mainly on grains for their protein.
Unlike vertebrates, that can simply consume more food in order to make up
for the shift in the protein-to-carbohydrate ratio in plants due to higher
CO2, many insect species have evolved to fit into a niche that requires
their immatures to develop in a narrow seasonal time frame, while already
eating as much as they can.
Think of a caterpillar that must race to consume leaves of its host plant
day and night during the brief period in which it must develop. Or the
solitary bee larva that is given exactly the same size pollen pellet to
complete its metamorphosis as its species was given a hundred years ago.
The pollen pellet no longer contains the same amount of protein.
CO2 levels have indeed changed over time, and species have evolutionarily
adapted. When plant matter is less nutritious, then species tend to grow
larger, so as to be able to have larger stomachs. Think of the giant
plant-eating dinosaurs or giant insects and other arthropods that evolved
during periods of high CO2 during Earth's history.
Today, those species that can't adapt may go extinct. Others will take
their places, carving out niches adapted to lower protein content in the
plants that they eat.
I don't know about others who have kept bees for many years. Do your
colonies nowadays grow as quickly and large as they used to? Mine don't
seem to, but I don't have hard data.
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com
>
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