Our Eden experiment continues to test the effects of increased carbon dioxide and plant growth. The experiments involve four separate terrariums, one of which is our standard open terrarium, which simply records plant growth under normal atmospheric conditions at the time, and the other three had controlled amounts of CO2 and were totally enclosed and isolated from the current environment.
To the end of February 2011, our results tell us:
1) You can double and triple the amount of CO2 and the plants thrive.
2) Plants love water vapour in the air, and do much better with just water vapour rather than rain.
3) In our now famous 2010-11 Aussie flooded summer (Dec – Feb), once the external humidity increased to over 90% and the external temperature rose above 30 degrees, the terrariums simply became heat boxes and killed everything.
Our March 2011 experiment (results below) was designed to separate CO2 influence from temp and humidity so the temp was maintained at 20 degrees (5 degrees below normal room temperature) and the humidity at 80%.
2011 results: Plant type: Pumpkins
13 Mar 2011 seeds planted
Terrarium 1. Open Normal CO2
Terrarium 2. Double CO2
Terrarium 3. Triple CO2
Terrarium 4. Quadruple CO2
23 Mar 2011. Plant height measured
Terrarium 1. 14 cm
Terrarium 2. 14 cm
Terrarium 3. 15.5 cm
Terrarium 4. 17 cm
29 Mar 2011 Experiment Discontinued
Terrarium 1. 28cm
Terrarium 2. 27cm
Terrarium 3. 30cm
Terrarium 4. 32cm
What surprised us most from these results was the very obvious benefit of triple and quadruple amounts of CO2 when the temperature was lower than 25 degrees, whereas the double CO2 terrarium didn’t do as well as it did when the temperature was higher (25 degrees). This experiment is being redone to confirm this trend, but the Global Warming lobby aka Climate Change promoters can take no joy in any actual results on the effects of CO2 thus far.
A major problem to date has been preventing mist forming on the glass walls, so our photographic records have been rather poor because we originally constructed the terrariums with all thermometers and humidity measuring equipment built into the inside of sealable containers which remained sealed for the duration of each experiment.
Evidence News 5 May 2011