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

Abstract

Significance Climate change and rising CO 2 are altering the behavior of land plants in ways that influence how much biomass they produce relative to how much water they need for growth. This study shows that it is possible to detect changes occurring in plants using long-term measurements of the isotopic composition of atmospheric CO 2 . These measurements imply that plants have globally increased their water use efficiency at the leaf level in proportion to the rise in atmospheric CO 2 over the past few decades. While the full implications remain to be explored, the results help to quantify the extent to which the biosphere has become less constrained by water stress globally.