Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
mol treatment. Tartaric acid and total sugars contents increased around 8%
and 14%, respectively, by rising CO
2
levels up to a maximum increase in
the middle of the ripening season. However, as the grapes reached the ma-
turity stage, the CO
2
effect on both quality parameters almost completely
disappeared. In sour orange (
Citrus aurantium
) plants grown for 17 years
in elevated (CO
2
) (at 300 ppm CO
2
above ambient), Kimball et al. (2007)
showed that instead of acclimation, the plants continued to respond by in-
creasing fruit production by 70%. During the last years of the experiment,
increased wood growth resulted in extra (70%) biomass accumulation.
Changing carbon availability to mango fruit influenced both the dry
mass and the water mass of its three main compartments: skin, pulp and
stone (Léchaudel et al., 2002). Since dry matter accumulation is affected
by the availability of assimilate supply, changes in its structural compo-
nent, including cell walls, and its nonstructural one, consisting of soluble
sugars, acids, minerals and starch, have been investigated according to
their sensitivities to leaf-to-fruit ratio treatments. The influence of dilution
during fruit growth on quality traits such as flesh taste or shelf life has
been considered by expressing concentrations of the main biochemical
and mineral compounds per unit of fresh mass (Léchaudel et al., 2005).
A recent study by Sun et al. (2012) demonstrated that elevated CO
2
could alleviate the negative effect of high temperature on fruit yield of
strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch. cv. Toyonoka) at different levels
of nitrogen. Their results confirmed that elevated CO
2
and high tempera-
ture caused a further 12% and 35% decrease in fruit yield at low and high
nitrogen, respectively. The fewer inflorescences and smaller umbel size
during flower induction caused the reduction of fruit yield at elevated CO
2
and high temperature. Interestingly, nitrogen application has no beneficial
effect on fruit yield, and this may be because of decreased sucrose export
to the shoot apical meristem at floral transition. Moreover, elevated CO
2
increased the levels of dry matter-content, fructose, glucose, total sugar
and sweetness index per dry matter, but decreased fruit nitrogen content,
total antioxidant capacity and all antioxidant compounds per dry matter in
strawberry fruit. They concluded that elevated CO
2
improved the produc-
tion of strawberry (including yield and quality) at low temperature, but
decreased it at high temperature.
Wang and Bunce (2004) reported the effect of elevated carbon dioxide
on fruit quality and aroma volatile composition in field-grown strawber-
ries (Fragaria × ananassa Duch). Elevating the ambient CO
2
concentration
