Plant Soil Environ., 2011, 57(5):207-215 | DOI: 10.17221/346/2010-PSE

Response of C4 (maize) and C3 (sunflower) crop plants to drought stress and enhanced carbon dioxide concentration

M. Vanaja, S.K. Yadav, G. Archana, N. Jyothi Lakshmi, P.R. Ram Reddy, P. Vagheera, S.K. Abdul Razak, M. Maheswari, B. Venkateswarlu
Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Santoshnagar, India

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) were chosen as C3 and C4 crop plants and assessed for the impact of enhanced CO2 (700 ppm) and its interaction with drought stress in open top chambers (OTCs). The ameliorative effect of higher CO2 concentration (eCO2) under drought stress was quantified. It is interesting to note that the C3 crop responded significantly and positively with eCO2 under both well-watered and drought stress treatments for root: shoot ratio while C4 crop showed a better response only with the drought stress environment. Root volume showed a positive significant response with CO2 concentration enhanced over ambient level and the increment in root volume was 146% and 340% in sunflower and maize crops, respectively. The leaf water potential, stomatal conductance and transpiration showed a decreasing trend in both the crops with drought stress and eCO2 showed an ameliorative effect leading to higher Pn rates in sunflower crop under drought stress treatment. The findings reveal that improvement of root traits is worth attempting for the future crop behavioral responses under eCO2 and drought stress environments. The study confirmed the beneficial effect of eCO2 in maize and sunflower by ameliorating the adverse affects of drought stress.

Keywords: leaf area; root and shoot characteristics; leaf water potential; gas exchange

Published: May 31, 2011  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Vanaja M, Yadav SK, Archana G, Jyothi Lakshmi N, Ram Reddy PR, Vagheera P, et al.. Response of C4 (maize) and C3 (sunflower) crop plants to drought stress and enhanced carbon dioxide concentration. Plant Soil Environ. 2011;57(5):207-215. doi: 10.17221/346/2010-PSE.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Blum A. (1996): Crop responses to drought and the interpretation of adaptation. Plant Growth Regulation, 21: 121-126. Go to original source...
    2. Bunce J.A. (1998): Effects of environment during growth on sensitivity of leaf conductance to changes in humidity. Global Change Biology, 4: 269-274. Go to original source...
    3. Centrito M., Magnani F., Lee H.S.J., Jarvis P.J. (1999): Interactive effects of elevated [CO2] and drought on cherry (Prunus avium) seedlings. II. Photosynthetic capacity and water relations. New Phytologist, 141: 141-153. Go to original source...
    4. Clifford S.C., Stronach I.M., Mohamed Azam-Ali A.D., Crout N.M.J. (1993): The effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and water stress on light interception, dry matter production and yield in stands of groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.). Journal of Experimental Botany, 44: 1763-1770. Go to original source...
    5. Dugas W.A., Prior S.A., Rogers H.H. (1997): Transpiration from sorghum and soybean growing under ambient and elevated CO2 conditions. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 83: 37-48. Go to original source...
    6. Fleisher D.H., Timlin D.J., Reddy V.R. (2008): Interactive effects of carbon dioxide and water stress on potato canopy growth and development. Agronomy Journal, 100: 711-719. Go to original source...
    7. Kimball B.A. (1993): Effect of elevated CO2 and climate variables on plants. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 48: 9-14. Go to original source...
    8. Kimball B.A., Kobayashi K., Bindi M. (2002): Responses of agricultural crops to free-air CO2 enrichment. Advances in Agronomy, 77: 293-368. Go to original source...
    9. Price A.J., Runion G.B., Prior S.A., Rogers H.H., Torbert H.A. (2009): Tropical spiderwort (Commelina benghalensis L.) increases growth under elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide. Journal of Environmental Quality, 38: 729-733. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    10. Reddy A.R., Rasineni G.K., Raghavendra A.S. (2010): The impact of global elevated CO 2 concentration on photosynthesis and plant productivity. Current Science, 99: 46-57.
    11. Robredo A., P'erez-L'opez U., de la Maza H.S., González-Moro B., Lacuesta M., Mena-Petite A., Muñoz-Rueda A. (2007): Elevated CO2 alleviates the impact of drought on barley improving water status by lowering stomatal conductance and delaying its effects on photosynthesis. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 59: 252-263. Go to original source...
    12. Rogers A., Gibon Y., Stitt M., Morgan P.B., Bernacchi C.J., Ort D.R., Long S.P. (2006): Increased C availability at elevated carbon dioxide concentration improves N assimilation in a legume. Plant, Cell and Environment, 29: 1651-1658. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    13. Rogers H.H., Peterson C.M., McCrimmon J.N., Cure J.D. (1992): Response of plant roots to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide. Plant, Cell and Environment, 15: 749-752. Go to original source...
    14. Rogers H.H., Runion G.B., Krupa S.V. (1994): Plant responses to atmospheric CO 2 enrichment with emphasis on roots and rhizosphere. Environmental Pollution, 83: 159-189. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    15. Salsman K.J., Jordan D.N., Smith D.S., Neumann D.S. (1999): Effect of atmospheric CO 2 enrichment on root growth and carbohydrate allocation of Phaseolus spp. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 160: 1075-1081. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    16. Srivastava G.C., Pal M., Das M., Sengupta U.K. (2001): Growth, CO 2 exchange rate and dry matter partitioning in mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) grown under elevated CO 2. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, 39: 572-577.
    17. Tyree M.T., Alexander J.D. (1993): Plant water relations and the effects of elevated CO 2 : a review and suggestions for future research. Vegetatio, 104/105: 47-62. Go to original source...
    18. Uprety D.C., Sunita K., Dwivedi N., Rajat M. (2000): Effect of elevated CO 2 on the growth and yield of rice. Indian Journal of Plant Physiology, 5: 105-107.
    19. Uprety D.C., Dwivedi N., Jain V., Mohan R. (2002): Effect of elevated carbon dioxide concentration on the stomatal parameters of rice cultivars. Photosynthetica, 40: 315-319. Go to original source...
    20. Vanaja M., Jyothi M., Ratnakumar P., Raghuram Reddy P., Jyothi Lakshmi N., Yadav S.K., Maheshwari M., Venkateshwarlu B. (2008): Growth and yield response of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) to two enhanced CO2 levels. Plant, Soil and Environment, 54: 38-46. Go to original source...
    21. Vanaja M., Maheswari M., Ratnakumar P., Ramakrishna Y.S. (2006): Monitoring and controlling of CO 2 concentrations in open top chambers for better understanding of plants response to elevated CO 2 levels. Indian Journal of Radio and Space Physics, 35: 193-197.
    22. Vanaja M., Raghuram Reddy P., Jyothi Lakshmi N., Maheshwari M., Vagheera P., Ratnakumar P., Jyothi M., Yadav S.K., Venkateswarlu B. (2007): Effect of elevated CO2 concentrations on growth and yield of blackgram (Vigna mungo L. Hepper) - a rainfed pulse crop. Plant, Soil and Environment, 53: 81-88. Go to original source...
    23. Vu J.C.V., Allen Jr. L.H. (2009): Growth at elevated CO 2 delays the adverse effects of drought stress on leaf photosynthesis of the C 4 sugarcane. Journal of Plant Physiology, 166: 107-116. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    24. Wall G.W. (2001): Elevated atmospheric CO 2 alleviates drought stress in wheat. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment, 87: 261-271. Go to original source...
    25. Ward J.K., Tissue D.T., Thomas R.B., Strain B.R. (1999): Comparative responses of model C3 and C4 plants to drought in low and elevated CO 2. Global Change Biology, 5: 857-867. Go to original source...
    26. Wu D.X., Wang G.X., Bai Y.F., Liao J.X. (2004): Effects of elevated CO2 concentration on growth, water use, yield and grain quality of wheat under two soil water levels. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment, 104: 493-507. Go to original source...
    27. Wullschleger S.D., Tschaplinski T.J., Norby R.J. (2002): Plant water relations at elevated CO2 - implications for water-limited environment. Plant, Cell and Environment, 25: 319-331. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    28. Zhao X.Z., Wang G.X., Shen Z.X., Zheng H., Qiu M.Q. (2006): Impact of elevated CO 2 concentration under three soil water levels on growth of Cinnamum camphora. Journal of Zhejiang University Science, 7: 283-290. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content