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Crop yields: CO2 fertilization dries up

Nature Plants volume 2, Article number: 16138 (2016) Cite this article

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Rising atmospheric CO2 is expected to boost crop yields during drought events because it promotes stomatal closure and saves water. However, field experiments with soybean in a simulated future CO2 atmosphere suggest that crop canopy interactions with climate might prevent this mechanism from delivering its expected benefits.

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Figure 1: Soybean responses to high atmospheric CO2.

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  1. Colin Osborne is in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences and is Associate Director of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.,

    Colin P. Osborne

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  1. Colin P. Osborne
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Correspondence to Colin P. Osborne.

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Osborne, C. Crop yields: CO2 fertilization dries up. Nature Plants 2, 16138 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.138

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