Morpho-physiological aspects and production of tomato under elavated concentration of atmospheric CO2

Abstract

Tomato is a Solanaceae of great importance for the agribusiness being the vegetable-fruit more consumed in the world. Climate change, such as increased atmospheric concentration of CO2, has raised concern about food security by direct influence in the food production. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of atmospheric CO2 concentration on morph-physiological characteristics and tomato production. For this, plants of the cultivar Micro-Tom were cultivated under 400 or 700 ?mol mol-1 of atmospheric CO2 and evaluated for growth, physiological responses, yield and fruit quality. Results showed that the elevation of CO2 concentration from 400 to 700 ?mol mol-1 caused morpho-physiological changes in the tomato plants. In plants grown at 700 ?mol mol-1 of CO2 occurred reduction in chlorophylls concentration, and increase in the concentration of flavonoids, leaf area, leaf dry matter, Dickson quality index, fruit size and weight, and fruit yield per plant. In regarding to fruit color, there was increase of the a* and reduction of the chroma in response to the increase in CO2 concentration. In conclusion, the increase in the atmospheric CO2 concentration resulted in changes in physiological processes, gain in leaf area, as well as, increase in fruit production and its visual quality.