Maurya, V.K., Gupta, S.K.,
Sharma, M., Majumder, B.,
Deeba, F., Pandey, N.
and Pandey, V.
2020
Proteomic changes
may lead to
yield alteration
in maize under
carbon dioxide
enriched condition.
3 Biotech 10: 203.
NOTE:
Maurya et al. (2020)
conducted an experiment
to evaluate the growth,
physiology and yield
of two maize (Zea mays)
varieties under ambient
(398 ppm) and elevated
(530 ppm) CO2 concentrations.
SUMMARY:
Climate alarmists
have claimed that
C4 photosyntheses
plants like corn
are unresponsive
to CO2 enrichment.
This research,
and other studies,
have contradicted
that claim.
Maurya et al.
also report that PEHM-5
corn "had better
seed quality [among the
two cultivars] in terms of
significantly improved
total soluble sugar
and starch content
of grains."
And a "reduced level
of antioxidant (total
and reduced glutathione)
and antioxidative enzymes
in both varieties," .
Elevated CO2
stimulated
root weight,
shoot weight,
sprout weight,
aboveground
biomass,
total biomass,
number of seeds per cob,
thousand seed weight
and harvest index by
+50%, 29%, 39%,
34%, 36%, 13%, 6%
and 7%, respectively,
in PEHM-5
... and by +35%, 5%,
32%, 21%, 23%, 42%,
-10% and 14%
in SMH-3031.
Both varieties
experienced
increased
plant water
use efficiency
(+33% for PEHM-5 and
+78% for SMH-3031)
in the elevated
CO2 treatment.
DETAILS:
Work was done
at a Free-air CO2
Enrichment
(FACE) facility at
CSIR-National
Botanical Research
Institute in Lucknow,
Uttar Pradesh,
India.
Variety PEHM-5
is described as an
early maturing hybrid
tolerant to water
logging.
Variety SMH-3031
is a late variety hybrid
more suitable to
drought that is
higher yielding
than PEHM-5.
Carbon dioxide
enrichment
(+132 ppm above
an ambient value
of 398 ppm )
was supplied
for only 8 hours
per day
(9am to 5 pm).
The only
one-third
-of-a-day
enrichment
suggests
the authors'
findings
are likely to be
conservative.
Figure 1.
Yield attributes
of two Zea mays
cultivars (PEHM-5
and SMH-3031)
under ambient
(398 ppm)
or elevated
(530 ppm)
CO2 conditions.
a shoot weight;
b root weight;
c sprout weight;
d number of seed per cob;
e thousand seed weight.
Figure 2.
Comparison of
kernels from
two Zea mays
cultivars
illustrating
the impact
of elevated CO2
on seed size.
