DURHAM, N.C., March 9 (UPI) -- Understanding how plants manage calcium could help reduce the effects of acid rain on vegetation, research published Friday said.
"Our findings should help scientists understand how plant ecosystems respond to soil calcium depletion and to design appropriate strategies to protect the environment," said Zhen-Ming Pei, a Duke University biologist who led a study published in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
Pei and other researchers used molecular sensors to track how plants used calcium. The plants adjusted their growth depending on how much calcium was available.
Although acid rain robs soil of much of its calcium, there is still enough left for plants to live on, Pei said. But he suspects sensors may misinterpret "less" as "too little" in those plants and unnecessarily signal for growth shutdowns.
"Some soils have lost as much as 75 percent of their calcium during the past century," Pei said. "One way to respond is to add new calcium to the soil. But we can't do that everywhere that it's needed, and it is also expensive. Perhaps a plant's calcium sensors could instead be tricked into interpreting 'less' as 'still enough' and keep building new cell walls."
