This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Web of Science (22) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Szarek, S. R. Articles by Ting, I. P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Szarek, S. R. Articles by Ting, I. P. Agricola Articles by Szarek, S. R. Articles by Ting, I. P.

Environmental and Stress Physiology

Minor Physiological Response to Elevated CO₂ by the CAM Plant Agave vilmoriniana¹

Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, Department of Botany and Microbiology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287

One-year-old plants of the CAM leaf succulent Agave vilmoriniana Berger were grown outdoors at Riverside, California. Potted plants were acclimated to CO₂-enrichment (about 750 microliters per liter) by growth for 2 weeks in an open-top polyethylene chamber. Control plants were grown nearby where the ambient CO₂ concentration was about 370 microliters per liter. When the plants were well watered, CO₂-induced differences in stomatal conductances and CO₂ assimilation rates over the entire 24-hour period were not large. There was a large nocturnal acidification in both CO₂ treatments and insignificant differences in leaf chlorophyll content. Well watered plants maintained water potentials of –0.3 to –0.4 megapascals. When other plants were allowed to dry to water potentials of –1.2 to –1.7 megapascals, stomatal conductances and CO₂ uptake rates were reduced in magnitude, with the biggest difference in Phase IV photosynthesis. The minor nocturnal response to CO₂ by this species is interpreted to indicate saturated, or nearly saturated, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase activity at current atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. CO₂-enhanced diurnal activity of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase activity remains a possibility.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				I. Weiss, Y. Mizrahi, and E. Raveh Synergistic Effects of Elevated CO2 and Fertilization on Net CO2 Uptake and Growth of the CAM Plant Hylocereus undatus J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., May 1, 2009; 134(3): 364 - 371. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Ceusters, A. M. Borland, E. Londers, V. Verdoodt, C. Godts, and M. P. De Proft Diel Shifts in Carboxylation Pathway and Metabolite Dynamics in the CAM Bromeliad Aechmea 'Maya' in Response to Elevated CO2 Ann. Bot., September 1, 2008; 102(3): 389 - 397. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				U. LUTTGE Ecophysiology of Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) Ann. Bot., June 1, 2004; 93(6): 629 - 652. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]