Plant Gas Exchange and Photosynthesis in a Changing Environment 2022

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental change poses serious challenges to the sustainability of natural ecosystems and agricultural crop production. Rising average global temperatures, more frequent heat waves, longer drought events, increasing atmospheric CO₂, rising levels of tropospheric ozone, temporal/spatial shifts in precipitation, and salinity will directly affect plant photosynthesis. Population growth accompanied by reductions in the availability of fresh water and land for agricultural production (due to land degradation, increased urbanization, and/or the expansion of non-food crops) necessitate enhanced crop and water productivity. The increases in the yield of staple crops achieved through traditional breeding programs have been underpinned by enhanced leaf-level photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. However, scarcity of water poses a particular constraint to crop production as droughts become more severe and the availability of fresh water for irrigation declines. This interaction of water deficit, rising CO₂, higher temperatures, and other abiotic stresses on photosynthetic carbon gain (biochemical and diffusive limitations), plant water relations, stomatal control, protective physiological mechanisms (antioxidants, energy dissipation), and the emission of volatile organic compounds will determine the sustainability of future agricultural productivity and the viability of natural ecosystems. The development of precision irrigation and agriculture monitoring systems to utilize water availability more effectively, maximize productivity, and conduct field-based phenotyping require in-depth knowledge of the physiological processes regulating photosynthetic CO₂ uptake and water loss. Gas exchange analysis provides valuable information concerning plant–environment interactions and plant physiological status. This information is central to phenotyping programs and understanding the responses of natural vegetation to climate change.

This Special Issue will focus on the impact of changing environments on C3 and C4 photosynthetic physiologies, plant–water relations, leaf gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, secondary metabolism, and genetics toward developing more resilient and productive agriculture and elucidating the responses of natural vegetation to shifts in their environment.

Dr. Mauro Centritto
Dr. Matthew Haworth
Dr. Giovanni Marino
Guest Editors

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