Researchers have concluded that the planet can support a lot more plant life than experts once thought, even in its current state, according to a recent study.

 

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, details how the "theoretical limit of terrestrial plant productivity" - that is, not exclusively crop yield, but tree and flower growth as well - has been severely underestimated in the past.

 

The research team used a model of light-use efficiency and the theoretical maximum efficiency at which plants convert sunlight into biomass to estimate the theoretical limit of net primary production (NPP) on a global scale.

 

Even after accounting for expected decreased productivity in the wake of climate change conditions (drought, flooding, heat, etc), they still found that the Earth's maximum plant production was "roughly two orders of magnitude higher than the productivity of most current managed or natural ecosystems."

 

While increased biomass would be fantastic for cutting carbon emissions across the globe, to reach this heightened limit every living plant that grows in soil would have to be brought to its maximum natural potential with the help of scientific modification. Processes like genetic editing, as opposed to genetic modification via foreign trait insertion, are considered more "natural." However, it would still require scientists to tinker with plants on a genetic level in a lab.