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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #328693
Title: Variable responses to CO2 of the duration of vegetative growth within maturity group IV soybeans

Author
item Bunce, James

Submitted to: American Journal of Plant Sciences
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/13/2016
Publication Date: 9/16/2016
Citation: Bunce, J.A. 2016. Variable responses to CO2 of the duration of vegetative growth within maturity group IV soybeans. American Journal of Plant Sciences. 7:1759-1764.

Interpretive Summary: Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increase the yield of many crop species. However, there is wide variation in the amount of yield increase within each species. This work identified a trait within soybeans which increases the yield stimulation caused by higher carbon dioxide concentrations. This work will be of interest to scientists adapting crop plants to climate change.

Technical Abstract: Prior experiments in indoor chambers and in the field using free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) systems indicated variation among soybean cultivars in whether and how much elevated CO2 prolonged vegetative development. However, the cultivars tested differed in maturity group, and it is not known whether variation exists in CO2 effects on the duration of vegetative growth within a maturity group. In these experiments, a total of five soybean cultivars of maturity group IV were grown at ambient and elevated CO2 in the field in Maryland, USA using FACE systems, over three years. The time of first flowering, the time of the first open flowers at the apical node of the main stem, and the total number of main stem nodes at maturity were recorded. In each year of the study, there were cultivars in which elevated CO2 did not affect the duration of vegetative growth or the main stem node number, and other cultivars in which elevated CO2 prolonged vegetative growth and increased the number of main stem nodes at maturity. The stimulation in yield by elevated CO2 was highly correlated with the increase in the number of main stem nodes, indicating that CO2 effects on the duration of vegetative growth may be important in adapting soybean to higher atmospheric CO2.