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Contrasting responses of leaf stomatal characteristics to climate change: a considerable challenge to predict carbon and water cycles
Author(s) -
Yan Weiming,
Zhong Yangquanwei,
Shangguan Zhouping
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1111/gcb.13654
Subject(s) - climate change , stomatal density , environmental science , carbon cycle , atmospheric sciences , ecology , photosynthesis , biology , botany , ecosystem , geology
Stomata control the cycling of water and carbon between plants and the atmosphere; however, no consistent conclusions have been drawn regarding the response of stomatal frequency to climate change. Here, we conducted a meta‐analysis of 1854 globally obtained data series to determine the response of stomatal frequency to climate change, which including four plant life forms (over 900 species), at altitudes ranging from 0 to 4500 m and over a time span of more than one hundred thousand years. Stomatal frequency decreased with increasing CO 2 concentration and increased with elevated temperature and drought stress; it was also dependent on the species and experimental conditions. The response of stomatal frequency to climate change showed a trade‐off between stomatal control strategies and environmental factors, such as the CO 2 concentration, temperature, and soil water availability. Moreover, threshold effects of elevated CO 2 and temperature on stomatal frequency were detected, indicating that the response of stomatal density to increasing CO 2 concentration will decrease over the next few years. The results also suggested that the stomatal index may be more reliable than stomatal density for determination of the historic CO 2 concentration. Our findings indicate that the contrasting responses of stomata to climate change bring a considerable challenge in predicting future water and carbon cycles.