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In the context of climate change and global sustainable development goals, future wheat cultivation has to master various challenges at a time, including the rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]). To investigate growth and photosynthesis dynamics under the effects of ambient (-434 ppm) and elevated [CO2] (-622 ppm), a Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) facility was combined with an automated phenotyping platform and an array of sensors. Ten modern winter wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum L.) were monitored over a vegetation period using a Light-induced Fluorescence Transient (LIFT) sensor, ground-based RGB cameras and a UAV equipped with an RGB and multispectral camera. The LIFT sensor enabled a fast quantification of the photosynthetic performance by measuring the operating efficiency of Photosystem II (Fq'/Fm') and the kinetics of electron transport, i.e. the reoxidation rates Fr1' and Fr2'. Our results suggest that elevated [CO2] significantly increased Fq'/Fm' and plant height during the vegetative growth phase. As the plants transitioned to the senescence phase, a pronounced decline in Fq'/Fm' was observed under elevated [CO2]. This was also reflected in the reoxidation rates Fr1' and Fr2'. A large majority of the cultivars showed a decrease in the harvest index, suggesting a different resource allocation and indicating a potential plateau in yield progression under e[CO2]. Our results indicate that the rise in atmospheric [CO2] has significant effects on the cultivation of winter wheat with strong manifestation during early and late growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of climate change and global sustainable development goals, future wheat cultivation has to master various challenges at a time, including the rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO 2 ]). To investigate growth and photosynthesis dynamics under the effects of ambient (~434 ppm) and elevated [CO 2 ] (~622 ppm), a Free-Air CO 2 Enrichment (FACE) facility was combined with an automated phenotyping platform and an array of sensors. Ten modern winter wheat cultivars ( Triticum aestivum L.) were monitored over a vegetation period using a Light-induced Fluorescence Transient (LIFT) sensor, ground-based RGB cameras and a UAV equipped with an RGB and multispectral camera. The LIFT sensor enabled a fast quantification of the photosynthetic performance by measuring the operating efficiency of Photosystem II (F q '/F m ') and the kinetics of electron transport, i.e. the reoxidation rates F r1 ' and F r2 '. Our results suggest that elevated [CO 2 ] significantly increased F q '/F m ' and plant height during the vegetative growth phase. As the plants transitioned to the senescence phase, a pronounced decline in F q '/F m ' was observed under elevated [CO 2 ]. This was also reflected in the reoxidation rates F r1 ' and F r2 '. A large majority of the cultivars showed a decrease in the harvest index, suggesting a different resource allocation and indicating a potential plateau in yield progression under e[CO 2 ]. Our results indicate that the rise in atmospheric [CO 2 ] has significant effects on the cultivation of winter wheat with strong manifestation during early and late growth., Competing Interests: Authors OK, AC, JB, EK, HP, UR, and OM were employed by Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH. The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Knopf, Castro, Bendig, Pude, Kleist, Poorter, Rascher and Muller.)