Elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO2) is well reported to enhance the yield of vegetables. In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted which included 114 articles focusing on the observations on yield and yield components of vegetables to comprehensively understand the effect of eCO2 on vegetable yield. Elevated CO2 increased the fresh and dry yield of vegetables by 32.9% (n=7324) and 38.2% (n=1583), respectively. The increased yield can be attributed to the increased number of the vegetable organs largely by 32.0% and increased vegetable weight per number (size) to a lesser extent. In addition, eCO2 increased the harvest index by 23.1%, contributing to a yield improvement. Moreover, eCO2 increased root/shoot dry mass ratio to 8.1%, indicating that more nutrients were required to save biomass investment into roots, thus potentially resulting in a greater harvest index. As vegetables are preferably chosen in people’s diet, and more and more vegetable products are required, CO2 fertilization should be taken as a measure for vegetable production in the greenhouse continuously.

The full article is available on the ResearchGate website at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346751776_The_impact_of_elevated_CO_2_on_yield_of_vegetables