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What is the usual internal carbon dioxide concentration in C4 species under midday field conditions?

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Photosynthetica

Abstract

The carbon dioxide concentrating system in C4 photosynthesis allows high net photosynthetic rates (P N) at low internal carbon dioxide concentrations (C i), permitting higher P N relative to stomatal conductance (g s) than in C3 plants. This relation would be reflected in the ratio of C i to external ambient (C a) carbon dioxide concentration, which is often given as 0.3 or 0.4 for C4 plants. For a C a of 360 µmol mol−1 that would mean a C i about 110–140 µmol mol−1. Our field observations made near midday on three weedy C4 species, Amaranthus retroflexus, Echinochloa crus-galli, and Setaria faberi, and the C4 crop Sorghum bicolor indicated mean values of C i of 183–212 µ mol mol−1 at C a = 360 µmol mol−1. Measurements in two other C4 crop species grown with three levels of N fertilizer indicated that while midday values of C i at high photon flux were higher at limiting N, even at high nitrogen C i averaged 212 and 196 µmol mol−1 for Amaranthus hypochondriacus and Zea mays, respectively. In these two crops midday C i decreased with increasing leaf to air water vapor pressure difference. Averaged over all measurement days, the mean C i across all C4 species was 198 µmol mol−1, for a C i/C a ratio of 0.55. Prior measurements on four herbaceous C3 species using the same instrument indicated an average C i/C a ratio of 0.69. Hence midday C i values in C 4 species under field conditions may often be considerably higher and more similar to those of C3 species than expected from measurements made on plants in controlled environments. Reducing g s in C4 crops at low water vapor pressure differences could potentially improve their water use efficiency without decreasing P N.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Crop Systems and Global Change Laboratory, ARS, USDA, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD, 20705-2350, USA

    J. A. Bunce

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Bunce, J.A. What is the usual internal carbon dioxide concentration in C4 species under midday field conditions?. Photosynthetica 43, 603–608 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-005-0094-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-005-0094-y

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