Evapotranspiration Responses of Plants and Crops to Carbon Dioxide and Temperature

Summary

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration has risen from about 270 mmol (CO2) mol⁻¹ (air) (i.e., mole fraction of dry atmospheric air basis) before 1700 to about 370 mmol mol ⁻¹ currently. General Circulation Models (GCM) have predicted a global temperature rise of 2.8 to 5.2°C for a doubling of CO2. This review examines evapotranspiration and water-use efficiency responses of plants to rising CO2 and climatic changes, especially temperature. Doubling of CO2 will decrease leaf stomatal conductance to water vapor about 40%. However, water use by C3 crop plants under field conditions has usually been decreased only 12% or less for two reasons. Firstly, feedbacks in the energy balance of plant foliage cause leaf temperatures to rise as stomatal conductance is decreased. Increases of leaf temperature raise the vapor pressure of water inside the leaf, which increases the leaf-to-air vapor pressure difference. This increased driving force for transpiration offsets in large part the decreased leaf conductance caused by elevated CO2. Secondly, CO2 enrichment tends to cause leaf area to increase more rapidly in many crops. This increased leaf surface area for transpiration also offsets part of the decreased stomatal conductance per unit leaf area on the whole canopy evapotranspiration, but the energy budget feedbacks are more important.

Experiments point to a yield enhancement of 30 to 35% for C3 crops for the direct effects a doubling of CO2 (without ancillary climate change). If temperature rises, this yield enhancement may be greater for vegetative growth but less for seed grain yield. Experiments on both ambient and elevated CO2 treatments in sunlit growth chambers showed that transpiration rates increased 20% when air temperature was changed from 28 to 33 °C and increased 30% when temperature was increased from 28 to 35 °C. Thus, under well-watered conditions, evapotranspiration will increase about 4 to 5% per 1°C rise in temperature.

Crop model predictions of yields of soybean and maize showed a reduction due to temperature increases by two GCM models. Under Southeastern USA conditions, doubling CO2 in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) climate change scenario resulted in an 12% increase in yields, but yields decreased 50% in the Geophysical Fluids Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) climate change scenario. Optimum irrigation for both models gave yield increases of about 10%. These model results illustrate the critical requirement of water for production of crops. Under rainfed conditions, crop yields could suffer tremendously if growing season precipitation is decreased, but yields could increase moderately if growing season precipitation is increased. Under the high growing season rainfall scenario (GISS), irrigation requirements for optimum soil water were increased 22%, but under the low rainfall scenario (GFDL), irrigation requirements were increased 111%.

Without the effects of climate change, rising CO2 will cause an increase in crop water-use efficiency (WUE). Most of the increases in WUE will be due to increases in dry matter, with little or no contribution from decreases in water use per unit land area. Growers could produce higher yields per unit land area with higher total production, or maintain the same total production with less land and less total water use. However, if temperatures rise, transpirational water use will increase, and WUE will decline. Higher temperatures, and especially less rainfall, would raise the irrigation requirements of crops. Competition for water resources from other uses could result in less water available for irrigation.

Key Words:

• Transpiration
• photosynthesis
• water-use efficiency
• stomata
• yield
• biomass growth ratio
• carbon dioxide
• temperature
• climate change