Light, temperature and nutrients as factors in photosynthetic adjustment to an elevated concentration of carbon dioxide

The short‐term stimulation of the net rate of carbon dioxide exchange of leaves by elevated concentrations of CO 2 usually observed in C 3 plants sometimes does not persist. Experiments were conducted to test whether the patterns of response to the environment during growth were consistent with the hypotheses that photosynthetic adjustment to elevated CO 2 concentration is due to (1) feedback inhibition or (2) nutrient stress. Soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr. cv. Williams] and sugar beet ( Best vulgaris L. cv. Mono Hye‐4) were grown from seed at 350 and 700 μl − CO 2 , at 20 and 25°C, at a photon flux density of 0.5 and 1.0 mmol m −2 S −1 and with three nutrient regimes until the third trifoliolate leaf of soybean or the sixth leaf of sugar beet had finished expanding. Net rates of CO 2 exchange of the most recently expanded leaves were then measured at both 350 and 700 μl 1 −1 CO 2 . Plants grown at the elevated CO 2 concentration had net rates of leaf CO 2 exchange which were reduced by 33% in sugar beet and 23% in soybean when measured at 350 μl 1 −1 CO 2 and when averaged over all treatments. Negative photosynthetic adjustment to elevated CO 2 concentration was not greater at 20 than at 25°C, was not greater at a photon flux density of 1.0 than at 0.5 mmol m −2 S −1 and was not greater with limiting nutrients. Furthermore, in soybean, negative photosynthetic adjustment could be induced by a single night at elevated CO 2 concentration, with net rates of CO 2 exchange the next day equal to those of leaves of plants grown from seed at the elevated concentration of CO 2 . These patterns do not support either the feedback‐inhibition or the nutrient‐stress hypothesis of photosynthetic adjustment to elevated concentrations of CO 2 .