Plants may help climate change modeling

CIUDAD REAL, Spain, July 6 (UPI) -- A Spanish-led study suggests the ability of plants to tell time through a circadian clock might produce information that can improve climate change models.

The researchers, led by the University of Castilla la Mancha, said they studied plants' circadian rhythm -- the roughly-24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological or behavioral processes of living organism -- from a molecular viewpoint and found an ecological implication -- it makes climate change scenarios and CO2 level figures more accurate.

Victor Resco de Dios, the study's lead author, said the research, which appears in the journal Ecology Letters, reveals the ecological implications of plants' ability to "tell the time."

"The clock coordinates when a plant should flower and also when it should germinate a seed," Resco de Dios said, adding the circadian clock has a great capacity to adapt to its physical environment.

Plants take up CO2 by means of photosynthesis and can potentially mitigate climate change. However, in studies performed by ecologists to determine the level of CO2 in the models, "circadian regulation was not taken into account," Resco de Dios said.

According to the study, the circadian clock might be the key for plants to survive a rise in temperatures.

The scientists said they encourage further research from an ecological viewpoint, as "the value of this topic has been underestimated."