Photosynthesis, Respiration, and Climate Change

Changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and global climate conditions have altered photosynthesis and plant respiration across both geologic and contemporary time scales. Understanding climate change effects on plant carbon dynamics is critical for predicting plant responses to future growing conditions. Furthermore, demand for biofuel, fibre and food production is rapidly increasing with the ever-expanding global human population, and our ability to meet these demands is exacerbated by climate change.

This volume integrates physiological, ecological, and evolutionary perspectives on photosynthesis and respiration responses to climate change. We explore this topic in the context of modeling plant responses to climate, including physiological mechanisms that constrain carbon assimilation and the potential for plants to acclimate to rising carbon dioxide concentration, warming temperatures and drought. Additional chapters contrast climate change responses in naturaland agricultural ecosystems, where differences in climate sensitivity between different photosynthetic pathways can influence community and ecosystem processes. Evolutionary studies over past and current time scales provide further insight into evolutionary changes in photosynthetic traits, the emergence of novel plant strategies, and the potential for rapid evolutionary responses to future climate conditions. Finally, we discuss novel approaches to engineering photosynthesis and photorespiration to improve plant productivity for the future.

The overall goals for this volume are to highlight recent advances in photosynthesis and respiration research, and to identify key challenges to understanding and scaling plant physiological responses to climate change. The integrated perspectives and broad scope of research make this volume an excellent resource for both students and researchers in many areas of plant science, including plant physiology, ecology, evolution, climate change,and biotechnology. 

For this volume, 37 experts contributed chapters that span modeling, empirical, and applied research on photosynthesis and respiration responses to climate change. Authors represent the following seven countries: Australia (6); Canada (9), England (5), Germany (2),  Spain (3), and the United States (12).

Katie M. Becklin: Katie M. Becklin obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri in 2010, exploring the dynamics of plant-fungal symbioses across environmental gradients. Katie then joined Joy Ward's lab at the University of Kansas for her postdoctoral research, focusing on plant physiological responses across a broad CO2 gradient, ranging from low levels experienced during the last glacial maximum to predicted future concentrations. During this time Katie was awarded an NIH IRACDA postdoctoral fellowship to further test the role of mycorrhizal fungi in mediating plant responses to CO2. In 2017, Katie joined the Biology Department at Syracuse University as an Assistant Professor. She has published multiple papers in prominent plant physiology and ecology journals, is a Review Editor for Global Change Biology and Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, and chaired the 2019 Gordon Research Seminar on CO2 Assimilation in Plants.

Joy K. Ward: Joy K. Ward receivedher BS degree in biology from Penn State University, earned her masters and doctorate degrees at Duke University under Professor Boyd Strain, and held a post-doctoral position with Distinguished Professor James Ehleringer at the University of Utah. She was a long-term professor at the University of Kansas for 17 years prior to becoming dean at Case Western Reserve. She was the recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the White House in 2009, a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, and the Kavli Foundation and National Academy of Sciences also named her a Kavli Fellow. She has served as U.S. chair and planning member for the National Academy's Frontiers of Science in Saudi Arabia, Japan, Oman, Kuwait and has been a scientific delegate to Uzbekistan through the State Department. Joy is internationally recognized for her studies on how plants respond to changing atmospheric CO2 over geologic and contemporary time, and has provided novel insights into how plants respond to long-term environmental change since the last glacial period, as well as understanding how plants will respond to environments of the future.

Danielle A. Way: Danielle (Dani) Way obtained her BSc from the University of Toronto in 2002, her PhD at the same institution in Rowan Sage's lab in 2008, and did her post-doctoral work at Duke University with Rob Jackson, focusing on how elevated CO2 altered photosynthesis and plant performance. In 2012, she joined the Department of Biology at the University of Western Ontario, where she was granted tenure in 2018; Dani has also been an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Duke University since 2012, and joined the Terrestrial Ecosystem Science & Technology research group at Brookhaven National Laboratory as a Joint Appointee in 2019. Dani has published nearly 70 papers focusing on how warming and rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations alter photosynthesis, respiration, growth and survival in plants, with a focus on high latitude tree species. She was elected to the College of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018 and was awarded the C.D. Nelson Award by the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists in 2019 for outstanding research in plant biology within 10 years of an independent position. She is the Reviews Editor for Global Change Biology, a Topic Editor for Plant, Cell & Environment, and worked from 2012-2020 as an Editor and Associate Editor-in-Chief for Tree Physiology.