Elevated CO2increases shoot growth but not root growth and C:N:P stoichiometry of Suaeda aralocaspicaplants

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the eco-physiological responses, in terms of growth and C:N:P stoichiometry of plants cultured from dimorphic seeds of a single-cell C4 annual Suaeda aralocaspica(Bunge) Freitag and Schütze under elevated CO2. A climatic chamber experiment was conducted to examine the effects of ambient (720 μg/L) and CO2-enriched (1440 μg/L) treatments on these responses in S. aralocaspicaat vegetative and reproductive stages in 2012. Result showed that elevated CO2significantly increased shoot dry weight, but decreased N:P ratio at both growth stages. Plants grown from dimorphic seeds did not exhibit significant differences in growth and C:N:P stoichiometric characteristics. The transition from vegetation to reproductive stage significantly increased shoot:root ratio, N and P contents, but decreased C:N, C:P and N:P ratios, and did not affect shoot dry weight. Moreover, our results indicate that the changes in N:P and C:N ratios between ambient and elevated CO2 are mainly caused by the decrease of N content under elevated CO2. These results provide an insight into nutritional metabolism of single-cell C4plants under climate change.