Summer Droughts Affect Plant Growth and Productivity

A team of scientists from three Danish research institutions: Risø Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Roskilde, the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Life Sciences (KU LIFE) and Aarhus University's National Environmental Research Institute (DMU) called CLIMAITE (Climate change effects on biological processes in terrestrial ecosystems) consortium has published their latest findings on the effect of climate change on biological processes and natural ecosystems in the journal Global Change Biology.

The series of experiments was conducted in a military training area using a facility for measuring effects of elevated CO₂ level called Free Air Carbon Enrichment (FACE) technique. The scientists found that increasing levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere can result in more plant growth. However, in drought conditions, potential plant growth-promoting effects due to higher temperatures and increased CO₂  put together, limit the effect of CO₂-increased plant growth significantly. Further investigations on nitrogen concentration in rain, plants, soil fauna, microbes and soil water show that the drying of the soil has a significant effect on nitrogen production in areas that are exposed to increased CO₂ and warming. This phenomenon is expected to affect plant growth and productivity.

For details, see the news at http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=33755