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Tropical Spiderwort ( Commelina benghalensis L.) Increases Growth under Elevated Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Author(s) -
Price Andrew J.,
Runion G. Brett,
Prior Stephen A.,
Rogers Hugo H.,
Torbert H. Allen
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq2007.0621
Subject(s) - dry weight , carbon dioxide , shoot , biomass (ecology) , horticulture , nitrogen , agronomy , carbon dioxide in earth's atmosphere , chemistry , biology , botany , organic chemistry
Although considerable effort is being spent studying exotic plant pests, little consideration has been given as to how invasive plants might react to the increasing concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere. Tropical spiderwort ( Commelina benghalensis L.) is considered one the world's worst weeds and is becoming more of a problem in agricultural settings of the southeastern USA. Growth responses of tropical spiderwort were evaluated using plants grown in containers with a soilless potting medium under ambient and elevated (ambient + 200 μmol mol − 1 ) levels of CO 2 in open‐top field chambers. Although plant height was unaffected by CO 2 , leaf and flower number tended to increase (approximately 23%) when exposed to elevated CO 2 Aboveground plant parts exhibited significant increases in dry weight when exposed to high CO 2 ; leaf, flower, stem, and total shoot dry weights were increased by 36, 30, 48, and 44%, respectively. Total plant dry weight was increased by 41% for plants grown under high CO 2 Root dry weight and root length were unaffected by CO 2 concentration. Tropical spiderwort allocated more biomass to stems and tended to allocate less to roots when plants were exposed to high CO 2 Plant carbon concentration and content tended to be higher in CO 2 –enriched plants, whereas plant nitrogen concentration tended to be lower; thus, elevated CO 2 –grown plants had higher C/N ratios. Also, the amount of biomass produced per unit nitrogen was higher for plants exposed to elevated CO 2 The growth response of this plant is in the upper range typical for C3 plants.