Response of vegetation to rising carbon dioxide: Photosynthesis, biomass, and seed yield of soybean

Abstract

Elevated carbon dioxide throughout the lifespan of soybean causes an increase in photosynthesis, biomass, and seed yield. A rectangular hyperbola model predicts a 32% increase in soybean seed yield with a doubling of carbon dioxide from 315 to 630 ppm and shows that yields may have increased by 13% from about 1800 A.D. to the present due to global carbon dioxide increases. Several other sets of data indicate that photosynthetic and growth response to rising carbon dioxide of many species, including woody plants, is similar to that of soybean. Calculations suggest that enough carbon could be sequestered annually from increased photosynthesis and biomass production due to the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide from 315 ppm in 1958 to about 345 ppm in 1986 to reduce the impact of deforestation in the tropics on the putative current flux of carbon from the biosphere to the atmosphere.