Photosynthetic and growth response to fumigation with SO2 at elevated CO2 for C3 and C4 plants.

Six early successional plant species with differing photosynthetic pathways (3 C3 species and 3 C4 species) were grown at either 300, 600, or 1,200 ppm CO2 and at either 0.0 or 0.25 ppm SO2. Total plant growth increased with CO2 concentration for the C3 species and varied only slightly with CO2 for the C4 species. Fumigation with SO2 caused reduced growth of the C3 species at 300 ppm CO2 but not at the higher concentrations of CO2. Fumigation with SO2 reduced growth of the C4 species at high CO2 and increased growth at 300 ppm CO2. Leaf area increased with increasing CO2 for all plant species. Fumigation with SO2 reduced leaf area of C3 plants more at low CO2 than at high CO2 while leaf area of C4 plants was reduced more at high CO2 than at low CO2. These results support the notion that C3 species are more sensitive to SO2 fumigation than are C4 species at concentrations of CO2 equal to that found in normal ambient air. However, the difference in sensitivity to SO2 between C3 and C4 species was found to be reversed at higher concentrations of CO2. A possible explanation for this reversal based upon differences in stomatal response to elevated CO2 between C3 and C4 species is discussed.