The Effects of Global Climate Change on Photosynthesis

As a consequence of global climate change, increasing carbon dioxide, temperature and drought factors and their interactions are affecting photosynthesis. In addition to different photosynthesis mechanisms such as C3 and C4 in plants, C4 plants have three subspecies: NAD-malic enzyme (NAD-ME), NADP-malic enzyme (NADP-ME) and PEP carboxylase. The NAD-ME plants had more water use efficiency under arid conditions than NADP-ME plants, NAD-ME C4 plants have better growth and photosynthesis activity under increasing CO2 conditions. C4 plants show less response to increased CO2 conditions than other plant species on the other hand, it uses water and nitrogen more effectively. For this reason, some C3 crops especially wheat and rice are undergoing breeding experiments to transfer the C4 pathway