Insects take a bigger bite out of plants in a higher CO2 world

University of Illinois entomology professors are utilizing an open-air research facility in which plants can be exposed to a variety of CO2 and ozone levels to determine how global warming might affect the relationship between crop plants and the insect pests that eat them. These insects depend on nitrogen for their early development and since higher atmospheric CO2 means more carbs relative to nitrogen in plant leaves, young insects have to eat more of them to grow properly. None of this really came as a surprise to researchers, nor was the fact that more adult insects—which can survive on a high-carb diet—preferred high C02 soybeans over a control plot. What was somewhat unexpected was the discovery that at high CO2 levels, crop plants lost their ability to produce a hormone that made their leaves difficult for insect pests to digest.
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