Atmospheric evidence for a global secular increase in carbon isotopic discrimination of land photosynthesis

Abstract

A decrease in the ¹³C/¹²C ratio of atmospheric CO₂ has been documented by direct observations since 1978 and from ice core measurements since the industrial revolution. This decrease, known as the ¹³C-Suess effect, is driven primarily by the input of fossil fuel-derived CO₂ but is also sensitive to land and ocean carbon cycling and uptake. Using updated records, we show that no plausible combination of sources and sinks of CO₂ from fossil fuel, land, and oceans can explain the observed ¹³C-Suess effect unless an increase has occurred in the ¹³C/¹²C isotopic discrimination of land photosynthesis. A trend toward greater discrimination under higher CO₂ levels is broadly consistent with tree ring studies over the past century, with field and chamber experiments, and with geological records of C₃ plants at times of altered atmospheric CO₂, but increasing discrimination has not previously been included in studies of long-term atmospheric ¹³C/¹²C measurements. We further show that the inferred discrimination increase of 0.014 ± 0.007‰ ppm^-1 is largely explained by photorespiratory and mesophyll effects. This result implies that, at the global scale, land plants have regulated their stomatal conductance so as to allow the CO₂ partial pressure within stomatal cavities and their intrinsic water use efficiency to increase in nearly constant proportion to the rise in atmospheric CO₂ concentration.