Carbon isotope trends across a century of herbarium specimens suggest CO2 fertilization of C4 grasses

Abstract

Summary Increasing atmospheric CO2 is changing the dynamics of tropical savanna vegetation. C3 trees and grasses are known to experience CO2 fertilization, whereas responses to CO2 by C4 grasses are more ambiguous. Here, we sample stable carbon isotope trends in herbarium collections of South African C4 and C3 grasses to reconstruct 13C discrimination. We found that C3 grasses showed no trends in 13C discrimination over the past century but that C4 grasses increased their 13C discrimination through time, especially since 1950. These changes were most strongly linked to changes in atmospheric CO2 rather than to trends in rainfall climatology or temperature. Combined with previously published evidence that grass biomass has increased in C4‐dominated savannas, these trends suggest that increasing water‐use efficiency due to CO2 fertilization may be changing C4 plant–water relations. CO2 fertilization of C4 grasses may thus be a neglected pathway for anthropogenic global change in tropical savanna ecosystems.