Impact of Elevated Atmospheric CO2 Concentration on the Growth, and Yield in Two Potato Cultivars

Authors
A. Aien 1
M. Pal 2
S. Khetarpal 2
S. Kumar Pandey 2
1 Agricultural Research Center of Jiroft and Kahnooj, Jiroft, Iran
2 Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI)
Abstract
Concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is likely to increase up to 550 µmol mol-1 by the middle of 21st century. Such an increase in the atmospheric CO2 would affect plant growth, and as well the productivity of crop plants. A field experiment was conducted with two potato cultivars namely Kufri Surya and Kufri Chipsona-3 grown inside Open Top Chambers (OTCs) at ambient (385±30 µmol mol-1) vs. elevated CO2 (570±50 µmol mol-1) levels during rabi (winter) season of the year 2009-2010. The photosynthetic rate significantly increased in both cultivars when under high CO2 concentration, with the enhancement being more in Kufri Chipsona-3 than in Kufri Surya. There were significantly increased accumulations of reducing, non-reducing and total sugars observed in the leaves of both cultivars as due to CO2 enrichment. Crop Growth Rate (CGR) and Tuber Growth Rate (TGR), in both cultivars, were recorded higher in plants grown under elevated CO2 as compared with the ambient CO2 content. High CO2 increased the partitioning of dry matter towards the tubers at all the harvesting stages. Potato plants grown under elevated CO2 exhibited increased tuber yield due to the enhanced number of tubers per plant. At the final harvest, total tuber fresh weight was by 36% higher, under high CO2 treatments, as compared with that in the ambient. The response of K. Chipsona-3 was more pronounced, to elevated CO2 concentration, as compared with K. Surya. It is concluded that rising atmospheric CO2 in the future climatic change scenario may be beneficial to such tuber crops like potato to enhance growth as well as tuber number and finally yield.

Keywords

1. Ainsworth, E. A., Davey, P. A., Bernacchi, C. J., Dermody, O. C., Heaton, E. A., Moore, D. J., Morgan, P. B., Naidu, S. L., Ra, H. S. Y., Zhu, X..G., Gurtis, P..S. and Long, S. P. 2002. A Meta-analysis of Elevated CO2 Effects on Soybean (Glycine max) Physiology, Growth and Yield. Glob. Change Biol., 8: 695-709.
2. Conn, J. S. and Cochran, V. L. 2006. Response of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) to Elevated Atmospheric CO2 in the North American Subarctic. Agric. Ecosys. Environ., 112: 49–57.
3. Craigon, J., Fangmeier, A., Jones, M., Donnelly, A., Bindi, M., De Temmerman, L., Persson, K. and Ojanpera, K. 2002. Growth and Marketable Yield Responses of Potato to Increased CO2 and Ozone. Eur. J. Agron., 17: 273– 289.
4. Das, R. 2003. Characterization of Response of Brassica Cultivars to Elevated CO2 Under Moisture Stress Condition. PhD. thesis, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.
5. Drake, B. G., Gonzalezmelar, M. A. and Long, S. P. 1997. More Efficient Plants: A Consequence of Rising Atmospheric CO2. Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. Mol. Biol., 48: 609-639.
6. FAO. 2009. Statistical Yearbook, Website at http//www. fao.org
7. Farrar, J. F. and Williams, M. L. 1991. The Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Temperature on Carbon Partitioning, Source-sink Relations and Respiration. Plant Cell Environ., 14: 819–830.
8. Ghildiyal, M. C. and Sharma-Natu, P. 2000. Photosynthetic Acclimation to Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration. Ind. J. Exp. Biol., 38: 961-966.
9. IPCC. 2007. The Physical Science Basis. Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change. Summary Report of the Working Group I of IPCC, Paris, PP. 989.
10. Katny, M. A. C., Hoffmann-Thoma, G., Schrier, A. A., Fangmeier, A., Jager, H. and Van Bel, A. J. E. 2005. Increase of Photosynthesis and Starch in Potato under Elevated CO2 is Dependent on Leaf Age. J. Plant Physiol., 162: 429-438.
11. Lawlor, D. W. and Mitchell, R. A. C. 1991. The Effects of Increasing CO2 on Crop Photosynthesis and Productivity: A Review of Field Studies. Plant Cell Environ., 14: 807–818
12. Long, S. P., Ainsworth, E.A., Rogers, A. and Ort, D. R. 2004. Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide: Plants FACE the Future. Ann. Rev. Plant Biol., 55: 591-623.
13. Manrique, L. A. 1989. Analysis of Growth of Kennebec Potatoes Grown under Differing Environments in the Tropics. Amer. Potato J., 66: 277-291.
14. McCready, R. M., Guggloz, J., Silviera. V. and Owens, H. S. 1950. Determination of Starch and Amylase in Vegetables. Anal. Chem., 22: 1156-1158.
15. Miglietta, F., Magliulo, V., Bindi, M., Cerio. L., Vaccari, P., Loduca, V. and Peressotti, A. 1998. Free Air CO2 Enrichment of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), Development Growth and Yield. Glob. Change Biol., 4: 163–172.
16. Nelson, N. 1944. A Photometric Adaptation of the Somogyi Method for the Determination of Glucose. J. Biol. Chem., 153: 375-380.
17. Pal, M., Karthikeyapandian, V., Jain, V., Srivastava, A.C., Raj, A. and Sengupta, U.K. 2004. Biomass Production and Nutritional Levels of Berseem (Trifolium alexandrium) Grown under Elevated CO2. Agric. Ecosys. Enviorn., 101: 31-38.
18. Pal, M., Talawar, S., Deshmukh, P.S., Vishwanathan, C., Khetarpal, S., Kumar, P. and Luthria, D. 2008. Growth and Yield of Chickpea under Elevated Carbon Dioxide Concentration. Ind. J. Plant Physiol., 13: 367-374.
19. Radford, P. J. 1967. Growth Analysis Formulae: Their use and Abuse. Crop Sci., 7: 171–5.
20. Sage, R. F. 1994. Acclimation Photosynthesis to Increasing Atmospheric CO2: The Gas Exchange Prospective. Photosyn. Res., 39: 351-368.
21. Schapendonk, H. C. M., Van Oijen, M., Dijkstra, P., Pot, C. S., Wilco, J. R. M., Stoopen, J. and Stoopen, G. M. 2000. Effects of Elevated CO2 Concentration on Photosynthetic Acclimation and Productivity of Two Potato Cultivars Grown in Open-top Chambers. Aust. J. Plant Physiol., 27: 1119– 1130.
22. Sicher, R. C. and Bunce, J. A. 1999. Photosynthetic Enhancement and Conductance to Water Vapor of Field-grown Solanum tuberosum (L.) in Response to CO2 Enrichment. Photosyn. Res., 62: 155–163.
23. Stitt, M. 1991. Rising CO2 Levels and Their Potential Significance for Carbon Flow in Photosynthetic Cells. Plant Cell Environ., 14: 741-762.
24. Sujatha, K. B. 2005. Characterization of the Response of Rice Cultivars (Oryza sativa L.) to the Interaction of Elevated CO2 and Temperature. PhD. thesis, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.
Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology
Volume 16, Issue 7
November and December 2014
Pages 1661-1670