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Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment (FACE) is a method used by ecologists and plant biologists that raises the concentration of CO₂ in a specified area and allows the response of plant growth to be measured. Experiments using FACE are required because most studies looking at the effect of elevated CO₂ concentrations have been conducted in labs and where there are often factors other than CO₂ concentration that affect growth, for example the pot effect. Measuring the effect of elevated CO₂ using FACE is a better way of estimating how plant growth will change in the future as the CO₂ concentration rises in the atmosphere due to man-made emissions. FACE also allows the effect of elevated CO₂ on plants that cannot be grown in small spaces (trees for example) to be measured.

Method

Horizontal or vertical pipes are placed in a circle around the experimental plot, which can be between 1m and 30m in diameter, and these emit CO₂ enriched air around the plants. The concentration of CO₂ is maintained at the desired level through placing sensors in the plot which feedback to a computer which then adjusts the flow of CO₂ from the pipes.

Usage

FACE circles have been used across in parts of the United States in temperate forests and also in stands of aspen in Italy. The method is also utilized for agricultural research. For example, FACE circles have been used to measure the response of soybean plants to increased levels of ozone and carbon dioxide at research facilities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.^[1] FACE technologies have yet to be implemented in old growth forests, tropical forests, or boreal forests but future research projects will probably include these areas. TasFACE is investigating the effects of elevated CO₂ on a native grassland in Tasmania, Australia. The National Wheat FACE array is presently being established in Horsham, Victoria, Australia as a joint project of the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and the University of Melbourne.^[2]

Results

So far the response to elevated CO₂ using FACE have found that it only slightly increases yield in crop plants (5-7% in rice and 8% in wheat). These responses were lower than was expected from previous studies that measured the effect in labs or enclosures. This has important consequences as previous projections of food production have assumed that decreases in yield as a result of climate change would be offset by increased yield due to elevated CO₂.^[3]

References