Evidence for divergence of response in Indica, Japonica, and wild rice to high CO2 × temperature interaction.

High CO2 and high temperature have an antagonistic interaction effect on rice yield potential and present a unique challenge to adapting rice to projected future climates. Understanding how the differences in response to these two abiotic variables are partitioned across rice germplasm accessions may be key to identifying potentially useful sources of resilient alleles for adapting rice to climate change. In this study, we evaluated eleven globally diverse rice accessions under controlled conditions at two carbon dioxide concentrations (400 and 600 ppm) and four temperature environments (29 °C day/21 °C night; 29 °C day/21 °C night with additional heat stress at anthesis; 34 °C day/26 °C night; and 34 °C day/26 °C night with additional heat stress at anthesis) for a suite of traits including five yield components, five growth characteristics, one phenological trait, and four photosynthesis-related measurements. Multivariate analyses of mean trait data from these eight treatments divide our rice panel into two primary groups consistent with the genetic classification of INDICA/INDICA-like and JAPONICA populations. Overall, we find that the productivity of plants grown under elevated [CO2 ] was more sensitive (negative response) to high temperature stress compared with that of plants grown under ambient [CO2 ] across this diversity panel. We report differential response to CO2 × temperature interaction for INDICA/INDICA-like and JAPONICA rice accessions and find preliminary evidence for the beneficial introduction of exotic alleles into cultivated rice genomic background. Overall, these results support the idea of using wild or currently unadapted gene pools in rice to enhance breeding efforts to secure future climate change adaptation.

Effects of pulses of elevated carbon dioxide concentration on stomatal conductance and photosynthesis in wheat and rice.

Systems for exposing plants to elevated concentrations of CO2 may expose plants to pulses of CO2 concentrations considerably above the control set point. The importance of such pulses to plant function is unknown. Single leaves of wheat (Triticum aestivum cv Choptank) and rice (Oryza sativa cv Akitakomachi) were exposed for 30 minutes to pulses of elevated CO2 similar to the frequency, duration and magnitude of pulses observed in free-air CO2 enrichment systems. Stomatal conductance decreased within a few minutes of exposure to once per minute pulses of high CO2 of all the durations tested, in both species. Both species had 20-35% lower stomatal conductance for at least 30 min after the termination of the pulses. After the pulses had stopped, in all cases photosynthesis was below the values expected for the observed substomatal CO2 concentration, which suggests that either patchy stomatal closure occurred or that photosynthesis was directly inhibited. It was also found that a single, 2 s pulse of elevated CO2 concentration reaching a maximum of 1000 µmol mol⁻¹ decreased stomatal conductance in both species. On the basis of these results, it is probable that plants in many CO2 enrichment systems have lower photosynthesis and stomatal conductance than would plants exposed to the same mean CO2 concentration but without pulses of higher concentration.

Food security and climate change: on the potential to adapt global crop production by active selection to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Agricultural production is under increasing pressure by global anthropogenic changes, including rising population, diversion of cereals to biofuels, increased protein demands and climatic extremes. Because of the immediate and dynamic nature of these changes, adaptation measures are urgently needed to ensure both the stability and continued increase of the global food supply. Although potential adaption options often consider regional or sectoral variations of existing risk management (e.g. earlier planting dates, choice of crop), there may be a global-centric strategy for increasing productivity. In spite of the recognition that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO(2)) is an essential plant resource that has increased globally by approximately 25 per cent since 1959, efforts to increase the biological conversion of atmospheric CO(2) to stimulate seed yield through crop selection is not generally recognized as an effective adaptation measure. In this review, we challenge that viewpoint through an assessment of existing studies on CO(2) and intraspecific variability to illustrate the potential biological basis for differential plant response among crop lines and demonstrate that while technical hurdles remain, active selection and breeding for CO(2) responsiveness among cereal varieties may provide one of the simplest and direct strategies for increasing global yields and maintaining food security with anthropogenic change.

Three new methods indicate that CO2 concentration affects plant respiration in the range relevant to global change.

Short-term responses of plant dark respiration to carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]) in the range anticipated in the atmosphere with global change remain controversial, primarily because it is difficult to convincingly eliminate the many possible sources of experimental error in measurements of carbon dioxide or oxygen exchange rates. Plant dark respiration is a major component of the carbon balance of many ecosystems. In seedlings without senescent tissue, the rate of loss of dry mass during darkness indicates the rate of respiration. This method of measuring respiration was used to test for [CO2] effects on respiration in seedlings of three species with relatively large seeds. The time it took respiration to exhaust substrates and cause seedling death in darkness was used as an indicator of respiration rate in four other species with smaller seeds. The third method was measuring rates of CO2 exchange in excised petioles sealed in a cuvette submerged in water to prevent leaks. Petioles were utilized as the plant tissue type with the most reliable rates of respiration, for excised tissue. The rate of loss of dry mass in the dark decreased with increasing [CO2] in the range of 200-800 µmol mol-1 in all three large-seeded species. The seedling survival time in the dark increased with [CO2] in the same concentration range in all four of the smaller-seeded species. Respiration rates of excised petioles of several species also decreased over this [CO2] range. The data provide new evidence that the rate of dark respiration in plant tissue often decreases with increasing [CO2] in the 200-800 µmol mol-1 range.

Use of the response of photosynthesis to oxygen to estimate mesophyll conductance to carbon dioxide in water-stressed soybean leaves.

Methods of estimating the mesophyll conductance (g(m)) to the movement of CO(2) from the substomatal airspace to the site of fixation are expensive or rely upon numerous assumptions. It is proposed that, for C(3) species, measurement of the response of photosynthesis to [O(2)] at limiting [CO(2)], combined with a standard biochemical model of photosynthesis, can provide an estimate of g(m). This method was used to determine whether g(m) changed with [CO(2)] and with water stress in soybean leaves. The value of g(m) estimated using the O(2) response method agreed with values obtained using other methods. The g(m) was unchanged over the tested range of substomatal [CO(2)]. Water stress, which decreased stomatal conductance (g(s)) by about 80%, did not affect g(m), while the model parameter V(Cmax) was reduced by about 25%. Leaves with g(s) reduced by about 90% had g(m) values reduced by about 50%, while V(Cmax) was reduced by about 64%. It is concluded that g(m) in C(3) species can be conveniently estimated using the response of photosynthesis to [O(2)] at limiting [CO(2)], and that g(m) in soybean was much less sensitive to water stress than g(s), and was somewhat less sensitive to water stress than V(Cmax).

Acclimation of nitrogen uptake capacity of rice to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Nitrogen (N) is a major factor affecting yield gain of crops under elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations [CO(2)]. It is well established that elevated [CO(2)] increases root mass, but there are inconsistent reports on the effects on N uptake capacity per root mass. In the present study, it was hypothesized that the responses of N uptake capacity would change with the duration of exposure to elevated [CO(2)]. METHODS: The hypothesis was tested by measuring N uptake capacity in rice plants exposed to long-term and short-term [CO(2)] treatments at different growth stages in plants grown under non-limiting N conditions in hydroponic culture. Seasonal changes in photosynthesis rate and transpiration rate were also measured. KEY RESULTS: In the long-term [CO(2)] study, leaf photosynthetic responses to intercellular CO(2) concentration (Ci) were not affected by elevated [CO(2)] before the heading stage, but the initial slope in this response was decreased by elevated [CO(2)] at the grain-filling stage. Nitrate and ammonium uptake capacities per root dry weight were not affected by elevated [CO(2)] at panicle initiation, but thereafter they were reduced by elevated [CO(2)] by 31-41 % at the full heading and mid-ripening growth stages. In the short-term study (24 h exposures), elevated [CO(2)] enhanced nitrate and ammonium uptake capacities at the early vegetative growth stage, but elevated [CO(2)] decreased the uptake capacities at the mid-reproductive stage. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that N uptake capacity was downregulated under long-term exposure to elevated [CO(2)] and its response to elevated [CO(2)] varied greatly with growth stage.

Growth, photosynthesis, nitrogen partitioning and responses to CO2 enrichment in a barley mutant lacking NADH-dependent nitrate reductase activity.

Plant growth, photosynthesis and leaf constituents were examined in the wild-type (WT) and mutant nar1 of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Steptoe) that contains a defective structural gene encoding NADH-dependent nitrate reductase (NADH-NAR). In controlled environment experiments, total biomass, rates of photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, intercellular CO(2) concentrations and foliar non-structural carbohydrate levels were unchanged or differed slightly in the mutant compared with the WT. Both genotypes displayed accelerated plant growth rates when the CO(2) partial pressure was increased from 36 to 98 Pa. Total NADH-NAR activity was 90% lower in the mutant than in the WT, and this was further decreased by CO(2) enrichment in both genotypes. Inorganic nitrate was greater in the mutant than in the WT, whereas in situ nitrate assimilation by excised leaves was two-fold greater for the WT than for the mutant. Foliar ammonia was 50% lower in the mutant than in the WT under ambient CO(2). Ammonia levels in the WT were decreased by about one-half by CO(2) enrichment, whereas ammonia was unaffected by elevated CO(2) in mutant leaves. Total soluble amino acid concentrations in WT and mutant plants grown in the ambient CO(2) treatment were 30.1 and 28.4 micromol g(-1) FW, respectively, when measured at the onset of the light period. Seven of the twelve individual amino acids reported here increased during the first 12 h of light in the ambient CO(2) treatment, leading to a doubling of total soluble amino acids in the WT. The most striking effect of the mutation was to eliminate increases of glutamine, aspartate and alanine during the latter half of the photoperiod in the ambient CO(2) treatment. Growth in elevated CO(2) decreased levels of total soluble amino acids on a diurnal basis in the WT but not in mutant barley leaves. The above results indicated that a defect in NADH-NAR primarily affected nitrogenous leaf constituents in barley. Also, we did not observe synergistic effects of CO(2) enrichment and decreased foliar NADH-NAR activity on most N-containing compounds.

Systematic biology analysis on photosynthetic carbon metabolism of maize leaf following sudden heat shock under elevated CO2.

Plants would experience more complex environments, such as sudden heat shock (SHS) stress combined with elevated CO2 in the future, and might adapt to this stressful condition by optimizing photosynthetic carbon metabolism (PCM). It is interesting to understand whether this acclimation process would be altered in different genotypes of maize under elevated CO2, and which metabolites represent key indicators reflecting the photosynthetic rates (PN) following SHS. Although B76 had greater reduction in PN during SHS treatment, our results indicated that PN in genotype B76, displayed faster recovery after SHS treatment under elevated CO2 than in genotype B106. Furthermore, we employed a stepwise feature extraction approach by partial linear regression model. Our findings demonstrated that 9 key metabolites over the total (35 metabolites) can largely explain the variance of PN during recovery from SHS across two maize genotypes and two CO2 grown conditions. Of these key metabolites, malate, valine, isoleucine, glucose and starch are positively correlated with recovery pattern of PN. Malate metabolites responses to SHS were further discussed by incorporating with the activities and gene expression of three C4 photosynthesis-related key enzymes. We highlighted the importance of malate metabolism during photosynthesis recovery from short-term SHS, and data integration analysis to better comprehend the regulatory framework of PCM in response to abiotic stress.

Variation in Yield Responses to Elevated CO2 and a Brief High Temperature Treatment in Quinoa.

Intraspecific variation in crop responses to global climate change conditions would provide opportunities to adapt crops to future climates. These experiments explored intraspecific variation in response to elevated CO2 and to high temperature during anthesis in Chenopodium quinoa Wild. Three cultivars of quinoa were grown to maturity at 400 ("ambient") and 600 ("elevated") µmol·mol-1 CO2 concentrations at 20/14 °C day/night ("control") temperatures, with or without exposure to day/night temperatures of 35/29 °C ("high" temperatures) for seven days during anthesis. At control temperatures, the elevated CO2 concentration increased the total aboveground dry mass at maturity similarly in all cultivars, but by only about 10%. A large down-regulation of photosynthesis at elevated CO2 occurred during grain filling. In contrast to shoot mass, the increase in seed dry mass at elevated CO2 ranged from 12% to 44% among cultivars at the control temperature. At ambient CO2, the week-long high temperature treatment greatly decreased (0.30 × control) or increased (1.70 × control) seed yield, depending on the cultivar. At elevated CO2, the high temperature treatment increased seed yield moderately in all cultivars. These quinoa cultivars had a wide range of responses to both elevated CO2 and to high temperatures during anthesis, and much more variation in harvest index responses to elevated CO2 than other crops that have been examined.

An attempt to interpret a biochemical mechanism of C4 photosynthetic thermo-tolerance under sudden heat shock on detached leaf in elevated CO2 grown maize.

Detached leaves at top canopy structures always experience higher solar irradiance and leaf temperature under natural conditions. The ability of tolerance to high temperature represents thermotolerance potential of whole-plants, but was less of concern. In this study, we used a heat-tolerant (B76) and a heat-susceptible (B106) maize inbred line to assess the possible mitigation of sudden heat shock (SHS) effects on photosynthesis (PN) and C4 assimilation pathway by elevated [CO2]. Two maize lines were grown in field-based open top chambers (OTCs) at ambient and elevated (+180 ppm) [CO2]. Top-expanded leaves for 30 days after emergence were suddenly exposed to a 45°C SHS for 2 hours in midday during measurements. Analysis on thermostability of cellular membrane showed there was 20% greater electrolyte leakage in response to the SHS in B106 compared to B76, in agreement with prior studies. Elevated [CO2] protected PN from SHS in B76 but not B106. The responses of PN to SHS among the two lines and grown CO2 treatments were closely correlated with measured decreases of NADP-ME enzyme activity and also to its reduced transcript abundance. The SHS treatments induced starch depletion, the accumulation of hexoses and also disrupted the TCA cycle as well as the C4 assimilation pathway in the both lines. Elevated [CO2] reversed SHS effects on citrate and related TCA cycle metabolites in B106 but the effects of elevated [CO2] were small in B76. These findings suggested that heat stress tolerance is a complex trait, and it is difficult to identify biochemical, physiological or molecular markers that accurately and consistently predict heat stress tolerance.

Sensitivity of infrared water vapor analyzers to oxygen concentration and errors in stomatal conductance.

Use of infrared analyzers to measure water vapor concentrations in photosynthesis systems is becoming common. It is known that sensitivity of infrared carbon dioxide and water vapor analyzers is affected by the oxygen concentration in the background gas, particularly for absolute analyzers, but the potential for large errors in estimates of stomatal conductance due to effects of oxygen concentration on the sensitivity of infrared water vapor analyzers is not widely recognized. This work tested three types of infrared water vapor analyzers for changes in sensitivity of infrared water vapor analyzers depending on the oxygen content of the background gas. It was found that changing from either 0 or 2% to 21% oxygen in nitrogen decreased the sensitivity to water vapor for all three types of infrared water vapor analyzers by about 4%. The change in sensitivity was linear with oxygen mole fraction. The resulting error in calculated stomatal conductance would depend strongly on the leaf to air vapor pressure difference and leaf temperature, and also on whether leaf temperature was directly measured or calculated from energy balance. Examples of measurements of gas exchange on soybean leaves under glasshouse conditions indicated that changing from 21% to 2% oxygen produced an artifactual apparent increase in stomatal conductance which averaged about 30%. Similar errors occurred for 'conductances' of wet filter paper. Such errors could affect inferences about the carbon dioxide dependence of the sensitivity of photosynthesis to oxygen.

Adjustments of net photosynthesis in Solanum tuberosum in response to reciprocal changes in ambient and elevated growth CO2 partial pressures.

Single leaf photosynthetic rates and various leaf components of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) were studied 1-3 days after reciprocally transferring plants between the ambient and elevated growth CO2 treatments. Plants were raised from individual tuber sections in controlled environment chambers at either ambient (36 Pa) or elevated (72 Pa) CO2. One half of the plants in each growth CO2 treatment were transferred to the opposite CO2 treatment 34 days after sowing (DAS). Net photosynthesis (Pn) rates and various leaf components were then measured 34, 35 and 37 DAS at both 36 and 72 Pa CO2. Three-day means of single leaf Pn rates, leaf starch, glucose, initial and total Rubisco activity, Rubisco protein, chlorophyll (a+b), chlorophyll (a/b), alpha-amino N, and nitrate levels differed significantly in the continuous ambient and elevated CO2 treatments. Acclimation of single leaf Pn rates was partially to completely reversed 3 days after elevated CO2-grown plants were shifted to ambient CO2, whereas there was little evidence of photosynthetic acclimation 3 days after ambient CO2-grown plants were shifted to elevated CO2. In a four-way comparison of the 36, 72, 36 to 72 (shifted up) and 72 to 36 (shifted down) Pa CO2 treatments 37 DAS, leaf starch, soluble carbohydrates, Rubisco protein and nitrate were the only photosynthetic factors that differed significantly. Simple and multiple regression analyses suggested that negative changes of Pn in response to growth CO2 treatment were most closely correlated with increased leaf starch levels.

Low humidity effects on photosynthesis in single leaves of C4 plants.

It was hypothesized that since sub-stomatal carbon dioxide concentrations are often saturating to photosynthesis at ambient external concentrations in C4 plants at high light, photosynthesis might be insensitive to partial stomatal closure caused by large leaf-air water vapor pressure difference. The response of stomatal conductance and photosynthesis at high irradiance to vapor pressure difference was determined under uniform conditions in C4 plants grown under controlled conditions, and outdoors. In several cases, photosynthesis was less sensitive to stomatal closure than it would have been if photosynthesis had a linear response to sub-stomatal carbon dioxide concentration. No change in photosynthesis at up to 25 mbar vapor pressure difference was demonstrated in the C4 species Portulaca oleracea and Amaranthus hypochondriacus, despite reductions in stomatal conductance of 32 and 17%, respectively. Sensitivity of photosynthesis to leaf-air vapor pressure difference was found to depend on the species and on the growth conditions.

Differential sensitivity to humidity of daily photosynthesis in the field in C3 and C4 species.

Net photosynthesis was measured under field conditions in Maryland, U.S.A. on several days in the C4 species Amaranthus hybridus and Portulaca oleracea, and the C3 species Chenopodium album. Two similar fully exposed canopy leavesof the same specieswere measured each day, following ambient patterns of air temperature and irradiance. One leaf of the pair was exposed to air at the ambient humidity, while the other leaf was exposed to wetter air, such that the leaf to air water vapor pressure difference was 0.5 to 0.6 of that of the leaf at ambient humidity. Daily totals of net photosynthesis were consistently higher for leaves at increased humidity in C. album, with a mean ratio of 1.17. In contrast, daily totals of net photosynthesis in the two C4 species were at most 1.06 times higher for leaves at increased humidity, with a mean ratio of 1.03. Leaf conductance to water vapor increased as water vapor pressure differences decreased in C. album and A. hybridus. In A. hybridus increased sub-stomatal CO2 concentrations resulting from increased humidity only slightly increased net photosynthesis.

Elevated carbon dioxide increases contents of antioxidant compounds in field-grown strawberries.

The effects of elevated CO2 concentrations on the antioxidant capacity and flavonoid content in strawberry fruit (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) were studied under field conditions. Increased CO(2) (300 and 600 micromol mol(-1) above ambient) concentrations resulted in increases in ascorbic acid (AsA), glutathione (GSH), and ratios of AsA to dehydroascorbic acid (DHAsA) and GSH to oxidized glutathione (GSSG), and a decrease in DHAsA in strawberry fruit. High anthocyanin and phenolic content were also found in fruit of CO(2) treated plants. Growing strawberry plants under CO(2) enrichment conditions significantly enhanced fruit p-coumaroylglucose, dihydroflavonol, quercetin 3-glucoside, quercetin 3-glucuronide, and kaempferol 3-glucoside contents, as well as cyanidin 3-glucoside, pelargonidin 3-glucoside, and pelargonidin 3-glucoside-succinate content. Fruit of strawberry plants grown in the CO(2) enrichment conditions also had high oxygen radical absorbance activity against ROO(*), O(2)(*-), H(2)O(2), OH(*), and (1)O(2) radicals.

Limitations to soybean photosynthesis at elevated carbon dioxide in free-air enrichment and open top chamber systems.

It has been suggested that the stimulation of soybean photosynthesis by elevated CO2 was less in free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) systems than in open top chambers (OTC), which might explain smaller yield increases at elevated CO2 in FACE systems. However, this has not been tested using the same cultivars grown in the same location. I tested whether soybean photosynthesis at high light and elevated CO2 (ambient+180 µmol mol(-1)) was limited by electron transport (J) in FACE systems but by ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylation capacity (VCmax) in OTC. FACE systems with daytime and continuous CO2 enrichment were also compared. The results indicated that in both cultivars examined, midday photosynthesis at high light was always limited by VCmax, both in the FACE and in the OTC systems. Daytime only CO2 enrichment did not affect photosynthetic parameters or limitations, but did result in significantly smaller yields in both cultivars than continuous elevation. Photosynthesis measured at low photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) was not higher at elevated than at ambient CO2, because of an acclimation to elevated CO2 which was only evident at low measurement PPFDs.

Carbon dioxide diffusion across stomata and mesophyll and photo-biochemical processes as affected by growth CO2 and phosphorus nutrition in cotton.

Nutrients such as phosphorus may exert a major control over plant response to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (CO2), which is projected to double by the end of the 21st century. Elevated CO2 may overcome the diffusional limitations to photosynthesis posed by stomata and mesophyll and alter the photo-biochemical limitations resulting from phosphorus deficiency. To evaluate these ideas, cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) was grown in controlled environment growth chambers with three levels of phosphate (Pi) supply (0.2, 0.05 and 0.01mM) and two levels of CO2 concentration (ambient 400 and elevated 800µmolmol(-1)) under optimum temperature and irrigation. Phosphate deficiency drastically inhibited photosynthetic characteristics and decreased cotton growth for both CO2 treatments. Under Pi stress, an apparent limitation to the photosynthetic potential was evident by CO2 diffusion through stomata and mesophyll, impairment of photosystem functioning and inhibition of biochemical process including the carboxylation efficiency of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxyganase and the rate of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate regeneration. The diffusional limitation posed by mesophyll was up to 58% greater than the limitation due to stomatal conductance (gs) under Pi stress. As expected, elevated CO2 reduced these diffusional limitations to photosynthesis across Pi levels; however, it failed to reduce the photo-biochemical limitations to photosynthesis in phosphorus deficient plants. Acclimation/down regulation of photosynthetic capacity was evident under elevated CO2 across Pi treatments. Despite a decrease in phosphorus, nitrogen and chlorophyll concentrations in leaf tissue and reduced stomatal conductance at elevated CO2, the rate of photosynthesis per unit leaf area when measured at the growth CO2 concentration tended to be higher for all except the lowest Pi treatment. Nevertheless, plant biomass increased at elevated CO2 across Pi nutrition with taller plants, increased leaf number and larger leaf area.

Direct and acclimatory responses of dark respiration and translocation to temperature.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Accounting for the acclimation of respiration of plants to temperature remains a major problem in analysis of carbon balances of plants and ecosystems. Translocation of carbohydrates out of leaves in the dark requires energy from respiration. In this study relationships between the responses of leaf respiration and translocation to temperature are examined. METHODS: Direct and acclimatory responses to temperature of respiration and translocation in the dark were investigated in mature leaves of soybean and amaranth. In some cases translocation from leaves was prevented by heat-girdling the phloem in the leaf petiole, or photosynthesis during the previous day was altered. KEY RESULTS: In both species short-term increases in temperature early in the dark period led to exponential increases in rates of respiration. However, respiration rates decreased toward the end of the dark period at higher temperatures. Stopping translocation largely prevented this decrease in respiration, suggesting that the decrease in respiration was due to low availability of substrates. In soybean, translocation also increased with temperature, and both respiration and translocation fully acclimated to temperature. In amaranth, translocation in the dark was independent of temperature, and respiration did not acclimate to temperature. Respiration and translocation rates both decreased with lower photosynthesis during the previous day in the two species. CONCLUSIONS: Substrate supply limited total night-time respiration in both species at high temperatures and following days with low photosynthesis. This resulted in an apparent acclimation of respiration to high temperatures within one night in both species. However, after long-term exposure to different temperatures there was no evidence that lack of substrates limited respiration in either species. In amaranth, respiration did not limit translocation rates over the temperature range of 20-35 degrees C.

Predicting the impact of changing CO(2) on crop yields: some thoughts on food.

Recent breakthroughs in CO(2) fumigation methods using free-air CO(2) enrichment (FACE) technology have prompted comparisons between FACE experiments and enclosure studies with respect to quantification of the effects of projected atmospheric CO(2) concentrations on crop yields. On the basis of one such comparison, it was argued that model projections of future food supply (some of which are based on older enclosure data) may have significantly overestimated the positive effect of elevated CO(2) concentration on crop yields and, by extension, food security. However, in the comparison, no effort was made to differentiate enclosure study methodologies with respect to maintaining projected CO(2) concentration or to consider other climatic changes (e.g. warming) that could impact crop yields. In this review, we demonstrate that relative yield stimulations in response to future CO(2) concentrations obtained using a number of enclosure methodologies are quantitatively consistent with FACE results for three crops of global importance: rice (Oryza sativa), soybean (Glycine max) and wheat (Triticum aestivum). We suggest, that instead of focusing on methodological disparities per se, improved projections of future food supply could be achieved by better characterization of the biotic/abiotic uncertainties associated with projected changes in CO(2) and climate and incorporation of these uncertainties into current crop models.

How do leaf hydraulics limit stomatal conductance at high water vapour pressure deficits?

A reduction in leaf stomatal conductance (g) with increasing leaf-to-air difference in water vapour pressure (D) is nearly ubiquitous. Ecological comparisons of sensitivity have led to the hypothesis that the reduction in g with increasing D serves to maintain leaf water potentials above those that would cause loss of hydraulic conductance. A reduction in leaf water potential is commonly hypothesized to cause stomatal closure at high D. The importance of these particular hydraulic factors was tested by exposing Abutilon theophrasti, Glycine max, Gossypium hirsutum and Xanthium strumarium to D high enough to reduce g and then decreasing ambient carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]), and observing the resulting changes in g, transpiration rate and leaf water potential, and their reversibility. Reducing the [CO2] at high D increased g and transpiration rate and lowered leaf water potential. The abnormally high transpiration rates did not result in reductions in hydraulic conductance. Results indicate that low water potential effects on g at high D could be overcome by low [CO2], and that even lower leaf water potentials did not cause a reduction in hydraulic conductance in these well-watered plants. Reduced g at high D in these species resulted primarily from increased stomatal sensitivity to [CO2] at high D, and this increased sensitivity may mediate stomatal responses to leaf hydraulics at high D.