Title
Canopy warming caused photosynthetic acclimation and reduced seed yield in maize grown at ambient and elevated [CO<inf>2</inf>]
Date Issued
01 November 2015
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Abstract
Rising atmospheric CO2 concentration ([CO2]) and attendant increases in growing season temperature are expected to be the most important global change factors impacting production agriculture. Although maize is the most highly produced crop worldwide, few studies have evaluated the interactive effects of elevated [CO2] and temperature on its photosynthetic physiology, agronomic traits or biomass, and seed yield under open field conditions. This study investigates the effects of rising [CO2] and warmer temperature, independently and in combination, on maize grown in the field throughout a full growing season. Free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) technology was used to target atmospheric [CO2] to 200 μmol mol-1 above ambient [CO2] and infrared heaters to target a plant canopy increase of 3.5 °C, with actual season mean heating of ~2.7 °C, mimicking conditions predicted by the second half of this century. Photosynthetic gas-exchange parameters, leaf nitrogen and carbon content, leaf water potential components, and developmental measurements were collected throughout the season, and biomass and yield were measured at the end of the growing season. As predicted for a C4 plant, elevated [CO2] did not stimulate photosynthesis, biomass, or yield. Canopy warming caused a large shift in aboveground allocation by stimulating season-long vegetative biomass and decreasing reproductive biomass accumulation at both CO2 concentrations, resulting in decreased harvest index. Warming caused a reduction in photosynthesis due to down-regulation of photosynthetic biochemical parameters and the decrease in the electron transport rate. The reduction in seed yield with warming was driven by reduced photosynthetic capacity and by a shift in aboveground carbon allocation away from reproduction. This field study portends that future warming will reduce yield in maize, and this will not be mitigated by higher atmospheric [CO2] unless appropriate adaptation traits can be introduced into future cultivars.
Start page
4237
End page
4249
Volume
21
Issue
11
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
IngenierÃa ambiental y geológica
BiotecnologÃa ambiental
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84944097015
PubMed ID
Source
Global Change Biology
ISSN of the container
13541013
DOI of the container
10.1111/gcb.13013
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción CientÃfica
Scopus