Field experiments using CO2 enrichment: a comparison of two main methods

doi:10.3832/ifor0545-003

Field experiments using CO₂ enrichment: a comparison of two main methods

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 109-112 (2010)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0545-003
Published: Jul 15, 2010 - Copyright © 2010 SISEF

Review Papers

Collection/Special Issue: NFZ Summer School 2009 - Birmensdorf (Switzerland)
Long-term ecosystem research: understanding the present to shape the future
Guest Editors: Marcus Schaub (WSL, Switzerland)

PDF Version

Full Text

Citation

The dramatic increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past century is hypothesized to have significant impacts on the earth system. To understand the effects of elevated CO₂ on terrestrial ecosystems, two main methods have been used to simulate an increase of CO₂ in a semi-controlled field setting: 1) Open Top Chambers (OTC); and 2) Free Air CO₂ Enrichment (FACE). The OTC method has been applied to study the components of forest ecosystems at small scale by manipulating seedlings or isolated juvenile trees, but is not able to address ecosystem processes as a whole. For technical reasons, OTC cannot be used to consider scaling issues, interaction with the boundary layer, and competition among species. To address these issues FACE technology was developed. FACE enables longer-term studies in larger plots, and allows studies of plant processes such as leaf area and canopy development, canopy energy balance and canopy gas exchange. In this review, I synthesize results from literature, in particular from meta-analysis techniques applied either to OTC or FACE. The results are qualitatively similar: CO₂ enrichment leads to reduced stomatal conductance and leaf nitrogen, and enhanced photosynthesis and production. However, photosynthesis and crop yield were lower in FACE experiments than OTC, while starch content was higher. These results provide support for ecosystem model simulations, and help fill the gap between individual plants, forest and regional ecosystem. Neither OTC nor FACE can provide a clear indication of the regional-scale feedbacks between atmosphere and vegetation that might be expected under elevated CO₂. To address this issue, further research is needed.

Keywords

Photosynthesis, Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment FACE, Open top chamber, Carbon sequestration, Forest ecosystem

Authors’ address

(1)

Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Research Group Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 2, CH-1015 Lausanne (Switzerland)

Corresponding author

A Mauri
achille.mauri@epfl.ch

Citation

Mauri A (2010). Field experiments using CO₂ enrichment: a comparison of two main methods. iForest 3: 109-112. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0545-003

Paper history

Received: May 25, 2010
Accepted: Jun 01, 2010

First online: Jul 15, 2010
Publication Date: Jul 15, 2010
Publication Time: 1.47 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Breakdown by View Type

(Waiting for server response...)

Article Usage

Total Article Views: 56512
(from publication date up to now)

Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 48988
Abstract Page Views: 2794
PDF Downloads: 3843
Citation/Reference Downloads: 29
XML Downloads: 858

Web Metrics
Days since publication: 5255
Overall contacts: 56512
Avg. contacts per week: 75.28

Article Citations

Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Feb 2023)

Total number of cites (since 2010): 3
Average cites per year: 0.21

(no Plumx Metrics available for this paper)

Publication Metrics

by Dimensions ^©

Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

(1)

Ainsworth EA, Long SP (2004)
What have we learned from 15 years of free air CO₂ enrichment (FACE)? A meta-analytic review of the responses of photosynthesis, canopy properties and plant production to rising CO₂. New Phytologist 165: 351-372.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(2)

Allen LH, Baldocchi DJr, Bazzaz F, Burke K, Dahlman R, Denmead T, Hendrey G, McLeod A, Melillo J, Oechel W, Risser P, Rogers H, Rozema J, Wright R (1991)
Available technologies for field experimentation with elevated CO₂ in global change research. In: “SCOPE 45 Ecosystem Experiments”, Chapter 15 (Mooney HA, Medina E, Schindler D, Schulze ED, Walker BH eds). Wiley, UK, pp. 296.
Gscholar

(3)

Arp WJ (1991)
Effects of source-sink relations on photosynthetic acclimation to CO₂. Plant, Cell and Environment 14: 869-875.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(4)

Curtis PS, Wang X (1998)
A meta-analysis of elevated CO₂ effects on woody plant mass, form, and physiology. Oecologia 113: 299-313.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(5)

Drake BG, Gonzà lez-Meler MA, Long SP (1997)
More efficient plants: a consequence of increased atmospheric CO₂? Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology 48: 609-639.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(6)

Hendrey GR, Miglietta F (2006)
FACE technology: Past, Present, and Future. In: “Managed Ecosystems and CO₂” (Nösberger J, Long SP, Norby RJ, Stitt M, Hendrey GR, Blum M eds). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, pp 15-43.
Gscholar

(7)

IPPC (2007a)
Fourth Assessment Report. Chapter 10. Global climate projections. 10.7 Long Term Climate Change and Commitment 10.7.1, Climate Change Commitment to Year 2300. Based on AOGCM, pp. 822.
Gscholar

(8)

IPPC (2007b)
Fourth Assessment Report. Summary for Policymakers.
Online | Gscholar

(9)

Karnosky DF (2003)
Impacts of elevated atmospheric CO₂ on forest trees and forest ecosystems: knowledge gaps. Environmental International. 29: 161-169.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(10)

Körner C (2000)
Biosphere responses to CO₂ enrichment. Ecological Applications 10 (6): 1590-1619.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(11)

Lauber W, Körner C (1997)
In situ stomatal responses to long term CO₂ enrichment in calcareous grassland plants. Acta Oecologica 18: 221-229.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(12)

Leadley PW, Drake BG (1993)
Open top chambers for exposing plant canopies to elevated CO₂, concentration and for measuring net gas exchange. Vegetatio 104/105: 3-15.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(13)

Leadley PW, Niklaus P, Stocker R, Körner C (1997)
Screen-aided CO₂ control (SACC): middle ground between FACE and open-top chambers. Acta Ecologica 18 (3): 207-219.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(14)

Leakey ADB, Ainsworth EA, Bernacchi CJ, Rogers A, Long SP, Ort DR (2009)
Elevated CO₂ effects on plant carbon, nitrogen, and water relations: six important lessons from FACE. Journal of Experimental Botany 60: 2859-2876.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(15)

Ledford H (2008)
Forestry carbon dioxide projects to close down. Nature 456 (7220): 289.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(16)

Lee HSJ, Jarvis PG (1996)
The effects of tree maturity on some responses to elevated CO₂ in Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis Bong. Carr.). In: “Carbon Dioxide and Terrestrial Ecosystems” (Koch GW, Mooney HA eds). Academic Press Inc., S. Diego, CA, USA, pp 53-70.
Gscholar

(17)

Long SP, Ainsworth EA, Rogers A, Ort DR (2004)
Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide; plants FACE the future. Annual Review Plant Biology 55:591-628.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(18)

Niklaus PA, Spinnler D, Körner C (1998)
Soil moisture dynamics of calcareous grassland under elevated CO₂. Oecologia 117: 177-186.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(19)

NOAA/ESRL (2010)
Use of NOAA/ESRL data (Conway T ed). Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US. Department of Commerce, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Online | Gscholar

(20)

Norby RJ, Wullschleger SD, Gunderson CA, Johnson DW, Ceulemans R (1999)
Tree responses to rising CO₂ in field experiments: implications for the future forest. Plant, Cell and Environment 22: 683-714.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(21)

Norby RJ, Wullschleger SD, Hanson PJ, Gunderson CA, Tschaplinski TJ, Jastrow JD (2006)
CO₂ enrichment of a deciduous forest: the Oak Ridge FACE experiment. In: “Managed ecosystems and CO₂: case studies, processes, and perspectives” (Nösberger J, Long SP, Norby RJ, Stitt M, Hendrey GR, Blum H eds). Ecological Studies, Springer, Berlin, vol. 187, pp. 231-251.
Gscholar

(22)

Sarmiento JL, Wofsy SC (1999)
A U.S. carbon cycle science plan: a report of the carbon and climate working group. U.S.Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 69.
Gscholar

(23)

Schulze ED, Scholes RJ, Ehleringer JR, Hunt LA, Canadell J, Chaprin FS, Steffen WL (1999)
The study of ecosystems in the context of global change. The terrestrial biosphere and global change. International geosphere-biosphere programme book series 4, pp 27.
Gscholar

(24)

Uprety DC, Garg SC, Bisht BS, Maini HK, Dwivedi N, Paswan G, Raj A, Saxena DC (2006)
Carbon dioxide enrichment technologies for crop response studies. Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research 65 (11): 859-866.
Gscholar

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry

Contents

Search

Journal Info

Journal Subjects and Fields

For Authors

For Reviewers

For Readers

SISEF Publishing

Search iForest Contents