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Articles

Use of Carbon Isotopes to Estimate Incorporation of Added CO₂ by Greenhouse-Grown Tomato Plants ¹

Department of Agricultural Meteorology, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, 50250 Bet Dagan, Israel, Isotope Department, Weizmann Institute Of Science 76100, Rehovot, Israel

A method is presented which uses the ¹³C and ¹⁴C isotope abundance in CO₂-enriched greenhouse crops to determine the percentage of plant organic carbon derived from artificially added CO₂. In a greenhouse experiment with CO₂ concentrations elevated to 1100 ± 100 microliters per liter during part of the daylight hours and maintained at normal atmospheric concentrations (340 microliters per liter) during the rest of the time, it was shown by ¹⁴C analysis that between 41% and 42% of the carbon in tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum var 4884) came from the artificially added CO₂. Similar results were obtained from ¹³C analyses when the CO₂ pressure-dependent isotope separation was taken into account.