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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

The effect of elevated CO2, soil and atmospheric water deficit and seasonal phenology on leaf and ecosystem isoprene emission

Emiliano Pegoraro A , Mark J. Potosnak B , Russell K. Monson C , Ana Rey A F , Greg Barron-Gafford D and C. Barry Osmond E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Desertification and Geoecology, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, CSIC, 04001 Almería, Spain.

B Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV 89512, USA.

C Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

D Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.

E School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.

F Corresponding author. Email: arey@eeza.csic.es

Functional Plant Biology 34(9) 774-784 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP07021
Submitted: 29 January 2007  Accepted: 18 June 2007   Published: 30 August 2007

Abstract

Two cottonwood plantations were grown at different CO2 concentrations at the Biosphere 2 Laboratory in Arizona to investigate the response of isoprene emission to elevated [CO2] and its interaction with water deficits. We focused on responses due to seasonal variation and variation in the mean climate from one year to the next. In fall and in spring, isoprene emission rate showed a similar inhibition by elevated [CO2], despite an 8–10°C seasonal difference in mean air temperature. The overall response of isoprene emission to drought was also similar for observations conducted during the spring or fall, and during the fall of two different years with an approximate 5°C difference in mean air temperature. In general, leaf-level isoprene emission rates, measured at constant temperature and photon-flux density, decreased slightly, or remained constant during drought, whereas ecosystem-level isoprene emission rates increased. The uncoupling of ecosystem- and leaf-scale responses is not due to differential dependence on leaf area index (LAI) as LAI increased only slightly, or decreased, during the drought treatments at the same time that ecosystem isoprene emission rate increased greatly. Nor does the difference in isoprene emission rate between leaves and ecosystems appear to be due solely to increases in canopy surface temperature during the drought, though some increase in temperature was observed. It is possible that still further factors, such as increased penetration of PPFD into the canopy as a result of changes in leaf angle, reduced sink strength of the soil for atmospheric isoprene, and decreases in the mean Ci of leaves, combined with the small increases in canopy surface temperature, increased the ecosystem isoprene emission rate. Whatever the causes of the differences in the leaf and ecosystem responses, we conclude that the overall shape of the leaf and ecosystem responses to drought was constant irrespective of season or year.

Additional keywords: Biosphere 2, climate, drought, interannual, leaf area index, NEE, photosynthesis, Populus deltoides, soil, temperature.


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* *Emiliano Pegoraro passed away on 22 April 2007, marking the premature end to a productive and influential scientific career. Emiliano was a friend to many in the isoprene emission research community. His seminal studies on the patterns and mechanisms underlying the responses of leaf and canopy isoprene emissions to drought, temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration should stand for a long time as exemplars for how to experimentally dissect the mechanisms underlying complex physiological processes. Emiliano’s infectious love for life and science will be remembered and missed by his wife Ana, his family and many friends.