Increasing CO2 threatens human nutrition
Open accessAbstract
Dietary deficiencies of zinc and iron are a substantial global public health problem. An estimated two billion people suffer these deficiencies, causing a loss of 63 million life-years annually. Most of these people depend on C3 grains and legumes as their primary dietary source of zinc and iron. Here we report that C3 grains and legumes have lower concentrations of zinc and iron when grown under field conditions at the elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration predicted for the middle of this century. C3 crops other than legumes also have lower concentrations of protein, whereas C4 crops seem to be less affected. Differences between cultivars of a single crop suggest that breeding for decreased sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 concentration could partly address these new challenges to global health.
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Elevated CO2 reduces transpiration and produces plants with lower nutritional content, including smaller percentages of nitrogen, zinc, iron, and protein.
“Elevated levels of CO 2 have been shown to reduce transpiration and produce plants which have lower nutritional content with smaller percentages of nitrogen, zinc, iron, and protein (Loladze, 2002;Myers et al., 2014;Morison and Lawlor, 1999).”
From Spirulina supported plant growth in regolith simulants and elevated levels of CO2 (2025) · cites this paper as Myers et al., 2014
In “Rising CO2 threatens human nutrition” (page not provided), the paper reports lower zinc and iron concentrations in C3 grasses and legumes and lower protein in C3 grasses grown under elevated CO2. It discusses changes in nitrogen content and proposes reduced transpiration-driven nitrogen transport as a possible mechanism, but does not establish that transpiration was reduced or report lower nitrogen percentages across plants. The claim also omits the paper’s limits: protein was not significantly reduced in soybeans or C4 crops. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Cites
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- Authors
- Myers, S. S., Zanobetti, A., Kloog, I., Huybers, P., Leakey, A. D. B., Bloom, A. J., Carlisle, E., Dietterich, L. H., Fitzgerald, G., Hasegawa, T., Holbrook, N. M., Nelson, R. L., Ottman, M. J., Raboy, V., Sakai, H., Sartor, K. A., Schwartz, J., Seneweera, S., Tausz, M., & Usui, Y.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (IL)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (AU)
- National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences (JP)
- Agricultural Research Service (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- The Nature Conservancy (US)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Myers, Samuel S.
- ORCID
- Myers, Samuel S.
- Zanobetti, Antonella
- Kloog, Itai
- Huybers, Peter
- Leakey, Andrew D. B.
- Bloom, Arnold J.
- Dietterich, Lee H.
- Fitzgerald, Glenn
- Hasegawa, Toshihiro
- Holbrook, N. Michele
- Nelson, Randall L.
- Ottman, Michael J.
- Raboy, Victor
- Sakai, Hidemitsu
- Sartor, Karla A.
- Schwartz, Joel
- Seneweera, Saman
- Tausz, Michael
- Usui, Yasuhiro
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2014-05-07
- Volume
- 510
- Issue
- 7503
- Pages
- 139-142
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- PMC
- PMC4810679
- OpenAlex
- W1999829995
- Cited by
- 1,470
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 128 · 2025: 157 · 2024: 147 · 2023: 122 · 2022: 146 · 2021: 125 · 2020: 153 · 2019: 121 · 2018: 121 · 2017: 82 · 2016: 68 · 2015: 75 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 9.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2019-10-01)
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Acquire (CQUniversity) (submittedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000170)
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (P30ES000002)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant responses to elevated CO2
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant Micronutrient Interactions and Effects
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Climate change impacts on agriculture
- Keywords
- elevated CO2, C3 crops, C4 crops, zinc biofortification, iron biofortification, grain nutrient content, free-air CO2 enrichment, Fabaceae, cereals, protein content
- MeSH terms
- Iron Deficiencies, Air, Atmosphere, Australia, Breeding, Carbon Dioxide, Edible Grain, Diet, Humans, Iron, Japan, Fabaceae, Nutritional Status, Nutritive Value, Photosynthesis, Phytic Acid, Public Health, United States, Global Health, Zinc, Crops, Agricultural
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