The behaviour of plants in various gas mixtures

Abstract The effects of the composition and pressure of the ambient gas mixture on the diffusive gas exchange of leaves, and the effects of carbon dioxide and oxygen on respiration and photosynthesis are described. When photosynthesis is limited by the rate at which carbon dioxide reaches the chloroplasts, the net rate of photosynthesis of many (but not all) plant species depends on the ambient oxygen partial pressure. The effect of oxygen may be principally to stimulate a respiratory process rather than to inhibit carboxylation. However, when photosynthesis is not limited by the carbon dioxide supply, this respiratory process seems to be suppressed. The gas exchange of plant communities responds to the aerial environment in the way expected from measurements on single leaves, but the growth response to a given difference in gas composition is smaller than expected because of adaptation, notably in the ratio of leaf dry mass to leaf area. It is concluded that the growth rate of higher plants in given illumination will be independent of the partial pressure of oxygen and of other gases likely to be used to dilute it, provided that the carbon dioxide partial pressure is so adjusted (probably to not more than 2 mbar (200 Pa)) that the rate of photosynthesis is not limited by the rate of diffusion to the chloroplasts.