CO₂ is a precious and much coveted resource in nature. It's predicted to become all sequestered under ground eventually, on a billion-year timescale (making it quite troublesome for life!).
More pressingly, when it comes to plant life RIGHT NOW, we're still dangerously close to CO₂ starvation levels. The current ~400 parts-per-million are a good deal healthier than the ~180 ppm we've had throughout Quaternary (which nearly killed off all plant life). But compared to ~4000 ppm during the Cambrian explosion, we're still in a dire CO₂ drought.
Interesting science tidbit: not all plant life is equipped to handle CO₂ equally well. To combat the "recent" CO₂ drought, some plants evolved a new photosynthesis pathway called C4 over the past ~5m years [0]. Only about 3% of flowering plant species use the C4 pathway (notably tropical grasslands), but these account for 23% of the carbon fixed (primary productivity) in the world.
OTOH, trees in the OP fall under the older "C3 pathway", which cannot make use of CO₂ nearly as efficiently, and as a consequence struggle the most in CO₂-impoverished climates [1].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C4_carbon_fixation#The_evoluti...
[1] https://phys.org/news/2018-04-carbon-dioxide-boost-plantgrow...
More pressingly, when it comes to plant life RIGHT NOW, we're still dangerously close to CO₂ starvation levels. The current ~400 parts-per-million are a good deal healthier than the ~180 ppm we've had throughout Quaternary (which nearly killed off all plant life). But compared to ~4000 ppm during the Cambrian explosion, we're still in a dire CO₂ drought.
Interesting science tidbit: not all plant life is equipped to handle CO₂ equally well. To combat the "recent" CO₂ drought, some plants evolved a new photosynthesis pathway called C4 over the past ~5m years [0]. Only about 3% of flowering plant species use the C4 pathway (notably tropical grasslands), but these account for 23% of the carbon fixed (primary productivity) in the world.
OTOH, trees in the OP fall under the older "C3 pathway", which cannot make use of CO₂ nearly as efficiently, and as a consequence struggle the most in CO₂-impoverished climates [1].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C4_carbon_fixation#The_evoluti...
[1] https://phys.org/news/2018-04-carbon-dioxide-boost-plantgrow...