Structure and composition of a Mediterranean grassland community grown under Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (MiniFACE)
Amongst all terrestrial ecosystems, the productivity of Mediterranean-type ecosystems has been suggested to be one of the most responsive to increasing atmospheric CO 2 . The extent to which this prediction holds will depend in part on plant responses to elevated CO 2 under the highly variable condi...
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Published in | Community ecology Vol. 9; no. Suppl 1; pp. 141 - 151 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Cham
Springer International Publishing
2008
|
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Amongst all terrestrial ecosystems, the productivity of Mediterranean-type ecosystems has been suggested to be one of the most responsive to increasing atmospheric CO
2
. The extent to which this prediction holds will depend in part on plant responses to elevated CO
2
under the highly variable conditions characteristic of semiarid regions. Structure and composition responses of a semi-natural grassland community to a step-increase in atmospheric CO
2
(to about 580 μmol mol
-1
) were examined in the field using Free-Air CO
2
Enrichment (FACE) under seasonally varying moisture conditions. The limited production response to elevated concentrations of atmospheric CO
2
of this grassland community was counterbalanced by the effect on the phenology of many species. These findings suggest that predictions regarding Mediterranean plant responses to elevated CO
2
should account for seasonal patterns of production regulatory responses, which may vary across species and plant functional types. |
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ISSN: | 1585-8553 1588-2756 |
DOI: | 10.1556/ComEc.9.2008.S.19 |