TREE GROWTH IN CARBON-DIOXIDE ENRICHED AIR AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR GLOBAL CARBON CYCLING AND MAXIMUM LEVELS OF ATMOSPHERIC CO2

In the longest carbon dioxide enrichment experiment ever conducted, well-watered and adequately fertilized sour orange tree seedlings were planted directly into the ground at Phoenix, Arizona, in July 1987 and continuously exposed, from mid-November of that year, to either ambient air or air enriched, with an extra 300 ppmv of CO2 in clear-plastic-wall open-top enclosures. Only 18 months later, the CO2-enriched trees had grown 2.8 times larger than the ambient-treated trees; and they have maintained that productivity differential to the present day. This tremendous growth advantage is due to two major factors: a CO2-induced increase in daytime net photosynthesis and a CO2-induced reduction in nighttime dark respiration. Measurements of these physiological processes in another experiment have shown three Australlian tree species to respond similarly; while an independent study of the atmosphere's seasonal CO2 cycle suggests that all earth's trees, in the mean, probably share this same response. A brief review of the plant science literature outlines how such a large growth response to atmospheric CO2 enrichment might possibly be maintained in light of resource limitations existing in nature. Finally, it is noted that a CO2 ''fertilization effect'' of this magnitude should substantially slow the rate at which anthropogenic carbon dioxide would otherwise accumulate in the atmosphere, possibly putting an acceptable upper limit on the level to which the CO2 content of the air may ultimately rise.