On the relationship between stomatal characters and atmospheric CO2

Authors

C. D. Reid
H. Maherali
H. B. Johnson
S. D. Smith, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
S. D. Wullschleger
R. B. Jackson

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2003

Publication Title

Geophysical Research Letters

Volume

30

Issue

19

First page number:

1983

Last page number:

1987

Abstract

Leaf stomatal characters influence the response of terrestrial evapotranspiration to climate change and are used as proxies for the reconstruction of past atmospheric [CO2]. We examined the phenotypic response of stomatal index (SI), density (SD) and aperture (AP) to rising atmospheric CO2 in 15 species after four years exposure to a field CO2 gradient (200 to 550 μmol mol−1 atmospheric [CO2]) or at three Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) sites. Along the CO2 gradient, SI and SD showed no evidence of a decline to increasing [CO2], while AP decreased slightly. There was no significant change in SI, SD or AP with CO2 across FACE experiments. Without evolutionary changes, SI and SD may not respond to atmospheric [CO2] in the field and are unlikely to decrease in a future high CO2 world.

Keywords

Atmospheric carbon dioxide; Elevated CO2; Evapotranspiration; Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE); Stomata—Research; Stomatal aperture (AP); Stomatal density (SD); Stomatal index (SI)

Disciplines

Plant Biology

Language

English

Repository Citation

Reid, C. D., Maherali, H., Johnson, H. B., Smith, S. D., Wullschleger, S. D., Jackson, R. B. (2003). On the relationship between stomatal characters and atmospheric CO2. Geophysical Research Letters, 30(19), 1983-1987.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017775