Recent data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate that carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) concentrations in the atmosphere have risen close to 40 percent since before the industrial revolution. The effects of this rise on climate, sea levels and human societies are still being modeled, but one long-standing mystery for scientists has been how plants respond to rising CO 2 levels, and how their ability to store the greenhouse gas feeds back into the carbon cycle. UC Merced environmental engineer Elliott Campbell thinks he’s uncovered some answers, and he found them in an unusual place: ice samples taken from Antarctica. His research recently appeared in the research journal Nature , and the story was subsequently picked up by the New York Times . Below are a few excerpts from his Skype conversation with reporter Kerry Klein. “One of the big questions right now with climate change is understanding how the plants will interact with climate change,” Campbell says. “To some extent
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