Study Extends Earth's Plant-Life Survival to 1.84 Billion Years From 1.35 Billion
Updated
Updated · WION · Jun 16
Study Extends Earth's Plant-Life Survival to 1.84 Billion Years From 1.35 Billion
2 articles · Updated · WION · Jun 16
Summary
1.84 billion years is the new upper estimate for how long complex plant life could persist on Earth, pushing the biosphere's survival window hundreds of millions of years beyond earlier projections.
3D climate models drove the revision by adding atmospheric circulation and cloud behavior, which researchers said showed earlier work overstated how quickly a brightening Sun would make Earth uninhabitable for plants.
In one extreme scenario, stronger weathering strips CO2 from the air; older models killed plants below 10 parts per million, but the new study says some could survive at 1 part per million.
If weathering stays weak, CO2 remains higher and heat becomes the limit instead, with most land plants tolerating conditions until about 1.68 billion years and all plant life to roughly 1.87 billion years.
Humans would disappear far earlier, the study said, while the broader habitable window for plants still ends before Earth's oceans eventually evaporate.