Growth and yield stimulation under elevated CO2and drought: A meta-analysis on crops

Abstract

Exposure of plants to elevated CO2(eCO2) has a number of physiological effects, including increased photosynthetic carbon fixation and decreased stomatal conductance, resulting in greater growth and yield and also improved water use efficiency. Therefore, eCO2is considered to ameliorate the adverse effects of drought. To test this assumption in existing literature, we undertook a meta-analysis to study the interactive effects of eCO2and experimentally imposed drought on biomass and yield of crops and pasture grasses. We found that for crop species with C3metabolism, eCO2stimulates biomass accumulation and yield under both well-watered and dry conditions to a similar extent. For C4crops, howe..