A natural experiment on plant acclimation: Lifetime stomatal frequency response of an individual tree to annual atmospheric CO{sub 2} increase
- Utrecht Univ. (Netherlands); and others
Carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) has been increasing in atmospheric concentration since the Industrial Revolution. A decreasing number of stomata on leaves of land plants still provides the only morphological evidence that this man-made increase has already affected the biosphere. The current rate of CO{sub 2} responsiveness in individual long-lived species cannot be accurately determined from field studies or by controlled-environment experiments. However, the required long-term data sets can be obtained from continuous records of buried leaves form living trees in wetland ecosystems. Fine-resolution analysis of the lifetime leaf record of an individual birch (Betula pendula) indicates a gradual reduction of stomatal frequency as a phenotypic acclimation to CO{sub 2} increase. During the past four decades, CO{sub 2} increments of 1 part per million by volume resulted in a stomatal density decline of {approximately}0.6%. It may be hypothesized that this plastic stomatal frequency response of deciduous tree species has evolved in conjunction with the overall Cenozoic reduction of atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentrations. 37 refs., 3 figs.
- OSTI ID:
- 471598
- Journal Information:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 93, Issue 21; Other Information: PBD: 15 Oct 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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