Zee Media Bureau
Washington: The rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide that comes with climate change poses serious threat. According to a new study it has been revealed that the rising CO2 can cut the nutritional quality of some of the world`s most important food crops.
Around two to three billion people in the world receive 70 percent or more of their dietary zinc and/or iron from C3 crops, particularly in the developing world where zinc and iron deficiency is already a major health concern.
The amounts of both these important nutrients, zinc and iron, were found to be lower in wheat, rice, soybeans and field peas grown in open-air fields using a system called Free Air Concentration Enrichment (FACE),where the scientists created CO2 concentrations at the level they forecast for Earth by roughly 2050.
The wheat grown under elevated CO2 conditions were about 9 percent lower levels of zinc and 5 percent lower levels of iron compared to wheat grown under normal conditions. The rice grown with elevated CO2 levels had 3 percent less zinc content and 5 percent less iron.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is expected to reach 550 ppm in the next four to six decades.
