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On the relationship between stomatal characters and atmospheric CO 2
Author(s) -
Reid Chantal D.,
Maherali Hafiz,
Johnson Hyrum B.,
Smith Stanley D.,
Wullschleger Stan D.,
Jackson Robert B.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2003gl017775
Subject(s) - stomatal density , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , climate change , evapotranspiration , biology , ecology , botany , geology , photosynthesis
Leaf stomatal characters influence the response of terrestrial evapotranspiration to climate change and are used as proxies for the reconstruction of past atmospheric [CO 2 ]. We examined the phenotypic response of stomatal index (SI), density (SD) and aperture (AP) to rising atmospheric CO 2 in 15 species after four years exposure to a field CO 2 gradient (200 to 550 μmol mol −1 atmospheric [CO 2 ]) or at three Free Air CO 2 Enrichment (FACE) sites. Along the CO 2 gradient, SI and SD showed no evidence of a decline to increasing [CO 2 ], while AP decreased slightly. There was no significant change in SI, SD or AP with CO 2 across FACE experiments. Without evolutionary changes, SI and SD may not respond to atmospheric [CO 2 ] in the field and are unlikely to decrease in a future high CO 2 world.