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 Plant physiologists Kent Burkey (left) and Fitzgerald Booker collect soybean leaf samples in open-top field chambers for analysis of the effects of elevated carbon dioxide and ozone on plant chemistry.
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Fitzgerald Booker, Kent Burkey and Edwin Fiscus, researchers at the Plant Science Research Unit, are replicating some effects of climate change to see what the future holds for soybeans, wheat and the soils where they grow.
The researchers are using open-top chambers to expose soybean and wheat to levels of carbon dioxide and ozone that may be reached by the year 2050. Besides assessing the effects of future air concentrations on both crops, the researchers are conducting a 5-year project to determine how soil quality and carbon sequestration may be affected by plant responses to the two gases.
Preliminary results show just slightly higher levels of soil carbon in chambers with elevated carbon dioxide and in chambers with elevated levels of both carbon dioxide and ozone, but not in chambers with elevated ozone alone. In this type of cropping system, elevated carbon dioxide may stimulate soil decomposition processes and slow the rates of carbon accumulation in the soil.
Elevating carbon dioxide also reduced flour protein levels in wheat by 7 to 11 percent, but soybean protein concentrations were maintained because of soybeans’ ability to acquire the nutrient, nitrogen, from the air. |
Soybean and Wheat Response to Climate Change Agricultural Research Magazine, Nov/Dec 2009
Global Change/Air Quality Project - Plant Science Research Unit
Ozone effects on plants |