Brito, F.A.L.,
Pimenat, T.M.,
Henschel, J.M.,
Martins, S.C.V.,
Zsögön, A.
and Ribeiro, D.M.
2020
Elevated CO2
improves
assimilation rate
and growth
of tomato plants under
progressively higher soil
salinity, by decreasing
abscisic acid and
ethylene levels.
Environmental and Experimental Botany 176: 104050, doi:10.1016/j.envexpbot.2020.104050.
FULL SUMMARY HERE:
http://www.co2science.org/articles/V23/sep/a11.php
MY SHORT SUMMARY FOLLOWS:
Salinity stress hurts tomato growth: "soil and water salinity represent a serious challenge for world agriculture," as "salt hampers plant growth due to osmotic effects, ion toxicity, restriction of gas exchange capacity and nutrient imbalances in the cytosol." Crop yields in salt-stressed regions are far below crop yields in non-stressed conditions.
Elevated CO2 increased the dry weight of plant leaves, stems and roots -- a +29% biomass increase, under normal growing conditions ... and a huge +73% biomass increase, under soil salinity-stressed conditions.
Tomato plants
were subjected
to normal conditions,
or
salinity-stressed
(+150 mM NaCl)
conditions,
under ambient CO2
(400 ppm; aCO2)
or
elevated CO2
(750 ppm; eCO2),
for 21 days.
Figure 1:
The 29% and 73%
percentages
in yellow text
are the average
increase in total
plant biomass,
caused by the
elevated CO2,
for a given
salinity treatment
(normal or
salinity-stressed).
