Meta-analysis of the responses of Brazilian trees and herbs to elevated CO 2

Abstract

The CO2 concentration has increased in the atmosphere due to fossil fuel consumption, deforestation, and land-use changes. Brazil represents one of the primary sources of food on the planet and is also the world's largest tropical rainforest, which is one of the hot spots of biodiversity in the world. In this work, a meta-analysis was conducted to compare several CO2 Brazilian experiments displaying the diversity of plant responses according to life habits, such as trees and herbs. We found that trees and herbs display different responses. The young trees tend to allocate carbon - from increased photosynthetic rates and lower respiration in the dark - to organ development, increasing leaves, roots, and stem biomasses. In addition, more starch is accumulated in the young trees, denoting a fine control of carbon metabolism through carbohydrate storage. Herbs increased drastically in water use efficiency, controlled by stomatal conductance, with more soluble sugars, probably with a transient accumulation of carbon primarily stored in seeds as a response to elevated CO2.