Huber, B.M., Louws, F.J.
and Hernández, R.
2021
Impact of different daily light integrals
and carbon dioxide concentrations
on the growth, morphology, and
production efficiency of tomato seedlings.
Frontiers in Plant Science 12:
615853, doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.615853.
"... Huber et al. (2021) ... sought to "determine whether CO2 enrichment can maintain desirable plant growth under reduced light levels while maintaining comparable energy consumption, production cost, and high quality seedlings,"
... Huber et al. report "on average, the hypocotyl, epicotyl, and total heights increased by 24% in response to CO2 enrichment."
... the researchers found that elevated CO2 reduced the production time to the grafting phase by approximately 6-12%.
... they report energy use and production cost reductions on the order of 19-44% in several of their elevated CO2 treatments ...
... Three CO2 and three light intensity treatments were applied
... For CO2:
448 ppm (ambient),
1010 ppm (elevated) and
1568 ppm (super elevated),
Net photosynthesis, fresh mass and dry mass ... rose by an average 66%, 16% and 53%, respectively, under all CO2 treatments when the DLI (light intensity) increased from 6.5 to 13 mol per square meter per day.
... under all DLI treatments when the CO2 concentration rose from 448 to 1568 ppm net photosynthesis, fresh mass and dry mass increased by an average 52%, 20% and 33%, again respectively.
And when combined, the simultaneous rise in DLI and CO2 increased these three parameters by a whopping 165% (net photosynthesis), 36% (fresh mass) and another whopping 165% (dry mass).
... elevated CO2 ... does counter the growth-retarding effects of low light levels.
... (with a) "potential of decreasing the light requirement of plants (25-50%) through CO2 enrichment without affecting the quality of the transplants."