Carbon Dioxide Enrichment in `Virosa' Tomato Plant: Responses to Enrichment Duration and to Temperature

Abstract

<jats:p>Responses of the tomato (<jats:italic>Lycopersicon esculentum</jats:italic> Mill. cv. Virosa) plant to elevated CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> concentrations applied throughout the photoperiod or part of it were studied under two temperature regimes. Plants were exposed to CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> at 340 (control), 700, and 1000 μl·liter<jats:sup>–1</jats:sup>. The highest concentration was applied only at 22/16C (day/night) and 700 μl·liter<jats:sup>–1</jats:sup> at 22/16C and 25/16C. Transpiration rates were lower and photosynthetic rates were higher under elevated CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> than at the ambient level. Biomass production was higher only for plants grown at 700 μl·liter<jats:sup>–1</jats:sup> and 25/16C. Concentrations of macronutrients were lower in plants exposed to 1000 μl CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>/liter than in the control plants. Intermittent CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> was applied using two timing methods. In method 1, plants were exposed to 4- or 8-hour high-CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> concentrations during their 12-hour photoperiod. In method 2, plants were exposed for 3.5 days of each week to 700 μl CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>/liter. Only two of the 8-hour exposures resulted in greater growth than the controls. The lack of higher growth for CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>-enriched plants at 22/16C was attributed to a higher dark respiration rate and to a lack of efficient transport of photosynthates out of leaves.</jats:p>

Growth, Yield, and Postharvest Attributes of Glasshouse Tomatoes Produced under Deficit Irrigation

“…Concentration of fruit Ca, Mg, and K was determined following the procedure of Behboudian and Lai (1994), except that the atomic absorption spectrophotometer we used was a GBC 904AA (GBC Scientific Equipment Pty, Victoria, Australia). Concentrations of sucrose, glucose, and fructose were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography following the procedure of Behboudian and Tod (1995).…”

Influence of elevated CO2 concentration on disease development in tomato

“…For example, tomato plants grown under polyethylene tunnels with elevated CO 2 concentrations show increased yields of 32% and fruit size over 7.5 cm in diameter increased from 65% to 77% (Hartz et al , 1991). Transpiration rates of tomato were lower and photosynthetic rates higher in elevated CO 2 than at the ambient CO 2 environments (Behboudian & Robert, 1994).…”

Impact of Different Daily Light Integrals and Carbon Dioxide Concentrations on the Growth, Morphology, and Production Efficiency of Tomato Seedlings

“…For example, studies have focused on the impact of increasing the CO 2 concentration from an ambient level to 700-800 µmol mol −1 , and this enrichment results in an increase in the dry mass of tomato plants of 27% when grown under florescent lamps (135 PPFD, 12 h photoperiod; Wang et al, 2009). A similar impact was shown under ambient greenhouse conditions by increasing the CO 2 concentration from an ambient level to 700-800 µmol mol −1 resulting in a 16-27% increase of dry mass (Behboudian and Lai, 1994;Pan et al, 2019).…”

“…Previous research on tomato has also shown the impact of CO 2 enrichment on the dry mass (Behboudian and Lai, 1994;Fierro et al, 1994;Li et al, 2007a;Wang et al, 2009;Pan et al, 2019). For example, studies have focused on the impact of increasing the CO 2 concentration from an ambient level to 700-800 µmol mol −1 , and this enrichment results in an increase in the dry mass of tomato plants of 27% when grown under florescent lamps (135 PPFD, 12 h photoperiod; Wang et al, 2009).…”

“…Research reports have shown an increase in net photosynthetic rate and growth at CO 2 enrichment concentrations of 700–900 μmol mol –1 and suggested that higher concentrations provide little improvement in growth ( Behboudian and Lai, 1994 ; Fierro et al, 1994 ; Mamatha et al, 2014 ; Zheng et al, 2019 ). However, we hypothesize that CO 2 enrichment above recommended values will have a significant positive impact in tomato seedlings’ net photosynthetic rate, growth, morphology due to: (1) seedlings are on the exponential growth stage with no competition; (2) the seedlings have a short growing period; and (3) CO 2 enrichment is provided under relatively low DLI.…”