Elevated CO_2 concentration enhances germination, seedling growth and vigor of rice

摘要

Rice is a staple food for more than 50% of world population. Asia produces and consumes about 90% of all. Carbon dioxide (CO_2) levels are rapidly increasing in the atmosphere from 270 ppm to 384 in 2009 and then 401ppm in 2016. Different studies showthat increasing CO_2 has a positive impact on rice by enhancing the photosynthetic rate while other claims that long-term CO_2 can mediate adverse effect on rice. Different researches have been carried out on rice under elevated CO_2. Most of those studies concerned physiology and yield. As the effect of elevated CO_2 on seedling has not been studied yet, here we applied 800 ppm CO_2 for 8 days and collected data. The results showed that elevated CO_2 significantly increased rice seedling growth, germination rate, vigor and speed of germination which increased from 83% to 92%.