Background Increasing attention is being focused on the influence of rapid increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration on nutrient cycling in ecosystems. An understanding of how elevated CO2 affects plant utilization and acquisition of phosphorus (P) will be critical for P management to maintain ecosystem sustainability in P-deficient regions. Scope This review focuses on the impact of elevated ...

While increasing temperatures and altered soil moisture arising from climate change in the next 50 years are projected to decrease yield of food crops, elevated CO2 concentration ([CO2]) is predicted to enhance yield and offset these detrimental factors. However, C4 photosynthesis is usually saturated at current [CO2] and theoretically should not be stimulated under elevated [CO2]. Nevertheless...

Soils vary widely in mineral nutrient availability and physical characteristics, but the influence of this variability on plant responses to elevated CO2 remains poorly understood. As a first approximation of the effect of global soil variability on plant growth response to CO2, we evaluated the effect of CO2 on tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) grown in soils representing 10 of the 12 global s...

Traditional Chinese medicine relies heavily on herbs, yet there is no information on how these herb plants would respond to climate change. In order to gain insight into such response, we studied the effect of elevated [CO2] on Isatis indigotica Fort, one of the most popular Chinese herb plants. The changes in leaf photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence, leaf ultrastructure and biomass yield ...

Elevated concentrations of atmospheric CO2 ([CO2]) enhance the production and emission of methane in paddy fields. In the present study, the effects of elevated [CO2], elevated temperature (ET), and no nitrogen fertilization (LN) on methanogenic archaeal and methane-oxidizing bacterial community structures in a free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experimental paddy field were investigated by PCR-DGG...

BACKGROUND Increasing attention is being focused on the influence of rapid increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration on nutrient cycling in ecosystems. An understanding of how elevated CO2 affects plant utilization and acquisition of phosphorus (P) will be critical for P management to maintain ecosystem sustainability in P-deficient regions. SCOPE This review focuses on the impact of elevate...

Forecasting the effects of climate change on nitrogen (N) cycling in pastures requires an understanding of changes in tissue N. We examined the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration, atmospheric warming and simulated grazing (clipping frequency) on aboveground and belowground tissue N concentrations and C : N ratios of a C3 pasture grass. Phalaris aquatica L. cv. 'Holdfast' was grow...

The magnitude of changes in carboxylation capacity in dominant plant species under long-term elevated CO2 exposure (elevated pCa) directly impacts ecosystem CO2 assimilation from the atmosphere. We analyzed field CO2 response curves of 16 C3 species of different plant growth forms in favorable growth conditions in four free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments in a pine and deciduous forest, a...

Potato plants (Solanum tuberosum cv. Bintje) were grown in open top chambers under ambient (400 microL L(-1)) and elevated CO2 (720 microL L(-1)). After 50 days one half of each group was transferred to the other CO2 concentration and the effects were studied in relation to leaf age (old, middle-aged and young leaves) in each of the four groups. Under long-term exposure to elevated CO2, photosy...

Increases in growth at elevated [CO2] may be constrained by a plant's ability to assimilate the nutrients needed for new tissue in sufficient quantity to match the increase in carbon fixation and/or the ability to transport those nutrients and carbon in sufficient quantity to growing organs and tissues. Analysis of metabolites provides an indication of shifts in carbon and nitrogen partitioning...