An article in The Washington Post about how the recent excess carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere may explain the current bumper crop of poison ivy quoted Jacqueline Mohan, an assistant professor at UGA’s Odum School of Ecology.
“Vines are particularly adapted to take advantage of higher CO2 in the atmosphere,” said Mohan, since they “can increase their rate of photosynthesis to make more green leafy tissue,” which allows them to grow more and put out even more leafy tissue. Trees, on the other hand, “have to devote much of their photosynthetic carbohydrate to creating woody, non-photosynthetic support tissues such as trunks and branches, which do not lead to further increases in photosynthesis.”
