Carbon dioxide and agricultural yield: an assemblage and analysis of 430 prior observations

Book · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:6899738

Kimball, B A

The probable effect of the increasing global atmospheric CO/sub 2/ concentration on agricultural yields was evaluated. More than 430 observations of the yields of 37 species grown with CO/sub 2/ enrichment were extracted from more than 70 reports published during the past 64 years. These observations are tabulated in the Appendices. The ratios of the yield of CO/sub 2/-enriched plants to their respective controls were computed and statistically analyzed. CO/sub 2/ enrichment increased the economic yield of all mature agricultural crops by 28% with a 99.9% confidence interval from 22 to 35%. Excluding flower crops whose yield was measured by number of blooms, the mean yield increase with CO/sub 2/ enrichment was 36%. An additional 79 observations were also analyzed from experiments that were terminated before the plants matured and whose yield was indicated by total plant weight or height. Pooling these immature plant data with the mature plant results gave a mean yield increase of 33%. Further analysis of 81 experiments which had controlled CO/sub 2/ concentrations for their duration showed that yields probably will increase by 33% (with a 99.9% confidence interval from 24 to 43%) with a doubling of atmospheric CO/sub 2/ concentration.

• OSTI ID: 6899738
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
CARBON DIOXIDE
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
CROPS
PRODUCTIVITY
COMPILED DATA
GLOBAL ASPECTS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
DATA
INFORMATION
NUMERICAL DATA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
500200* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
560300 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
553000 - Agriculture & Food Technology