H14C-03
What would optimal vegetation do when confronted with steadily increasing atmospheric CO2
Monday, 14 December 2015: 16:30
3020 (Moscone West)
Michael L Roderick1, Randall J Donohue2, Yuting Yang2, Tim McVicar3 and Graham D Farquhar4, (1)Australian National University, Research School of Earth Sciences and Research School of Biology, Canberra, Australia, (2)CSIRO Land and Water Canberra, Land and Water Flagship, Canberra, Australia, (3)CSIRO Land and Water Canberra, Canberra, Australia, (4)Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Abstract:
The ongoing increase in atmospheric CO2 presents an interesting opportunity for primary producers. An increase in the substrate availability would, with all else equal, stimulate fixation of carbon from the atmosphere. But all else is not necessarily equal and this is only the beginning of a cascade of changes that can ultimately be traced back to the stomatal regulation of water-carbon exchanges. We first discuss theoretical expectations and then deduce how vegetation might respond to changing CO2 in water- and energy-limited environments. We then use satellite observations to test the theoretical expectations.
