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Hindi Research Article
Growth Responses of Nutrient-Stressed Cenchrus ciliaris Under Carbon Dioxide Enrichment
| Taou Saleh Ksiksi* and Noor Othman El-Shaigy | |
| Biology Department, UAE University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates | |
| Corresponding Author : | Taoufik Saleh Ksiksi Biology Department, Faculty of Science UAE University, Al-Ain 175551 United Arab Emirates Tel: +971507132808 Fax: +97137677535 E-mail: tksiksi@uaeu.ac.ae |
| Received August 31, 2012; Accepted October 19, 2012; Published October 21, 2012 | |
| Citation: Ksiksi TS, El-Shaigy NO (2012) Growth Responses of Nutrient-Stressed Cenchrus ciliaris Under Carbon Dioxide Enrichment. J Earth Sci Climate Change 3:127. doi:10.4172/2157-7617.1000127 | |
| Copyright: © 2012 Ksiksi TS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
The response of plants to carbon dioxide (CO2) enrichment is an important aspect to be thoroughly investigated in order to accurately predict the impact on resource use as well ecosystem level responses. But the extent of response of individual plant species is dependent on the underlying biotic and abiotic stresses. In the current project, the response of Cenchrus ciliaris, a C4 grass, was investigated under CO2 enrichment conditions under nutrient stress. Eco-physiological growth parameters were assessed within two plastic chambers with one chamber kept at ambient CO2 conditions (500ppm) and the second enriched with CO2 (1000ppm). Three treatments were studied: ambient (ACO2), enriched (ECO2) and alternating (alternating two weeks in each chamber; ALCO2). High atmospheric CO2 concentrations did increase shoot and inflorescence production under nutrient stress. The blade area of ECO2 plants was significantly larger than that of ALCO2 plants on the 31st of March 2010 at P=0.06 and on the 7th of April 2010 (P=0.074). Stomatal density of C.ciliaris, however, did decrease for ECO2 and ALCO2. Under ACO2, average sheath biomass was signcantly higher under nutrient stressed condition than under non-stressed condition (65.81% vs. 52.96%; respectively). Growth allocations results revealed a rush toward reproductive production for ECO2 under nutrient stress conditions.
