The computer model in the study builds on decades of research that shows that most species of fish, especially large ones, have maximum growth sizes based on the availability of oxygen in the water.
But it has inspired other schemes, including a Stanford University study of how protein chains fold in on themselves and a global weather-forecasting model at the Rutherford Appleton Lab in Britain.
Scientists have known for a long time that aerosols cool climate by reflecting sunlight and making clouds brighter, but the new study is the first to use a global model to estimate the net effects on plant carbon intake resulting from this type of atmospheric pollution.