Aim Leaves display a remarkable variety of shapes, each with potential ecological advantages in specific climates. While the relations between leaf shape and either climate or height have been relatively well studied in eudicots, the macroecological drivers of shape remain poorly known in monocots. Here, we investigated the associations between climate and plant height with the evolution of leaf shape in a clade with high spec...

Decline in mesophyll conductance ( g m ) plays a key role in limiting photosynthesis in plants exposed to elevated ozone (O 3 ). Leaf anatomical traits are known to influence g m , but the potential effects of O 3 ‐induced changes in leaf anatomy on g m have not yet been clarified. Here, two poplar clones were exposed to elevated O 3 . The effects of O 3 on the photosynthetic capacity and anatomical characteristics were assess...

The temperature sensitivity of physiological processes and growth of tropical trees remains a key uncertainty in predicting how tropical forests will adjust to future climates. In particular, our knowledge regarding warming responses of photosynthesis, and its underlying biochemical mechanisms, is very limited. We grew seedlings of two tropical montane rainforest tree species, the early‐successional species Harungana montana a...

Elevated CO 2 (eCO 2 ) generally promotes increased grain yield (GY) and decreased grain protein concentration (GPC), but the extent to which these effects depend on the magnitude of fertilization remains unclear. We collected data on the eCO 2 responses of GY, GPC and grain protein yield and their relationships with nitrogen (N) application rates across experimental data covering 11 field grown wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) cul...

Increasing both crop productivity and the tolerance of crops to abiotic and biotic stresses is a major challenge for global food security in our rapidly changing climate. For the first time, we show how the spatial variation and severity of tropospheric ozone effects on yield compare with effects of other stresses on a global scale, and discuss mitigating actions against the negative effects of ozone. We show that the sensitiv...

Introduction of high‐performing crop cultivars and crop/soil water management practices that increase the stomatal uptake of carbon dioxide and photosynthesis will be instrumental in realizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal ( SDG ) of achieving food security. To date, however, global assessments of how to increase crop yield have failed to consider the negative effects of tropospheric ozone, a gaseous pollutan...

Assessments of the impacts of ozone (O 3 ) on regional and global food production are currently based on results from experiments using open‐top chambers ( OTC s). However, there are concerns that these impact estimates might be biased due to the environmental artifacts imposed by this enclosure system. In this study, we collated O 3 exposure and yield data for three major crop species—wheat, rice, and soybean—for which O 3 ex...

Tropospheric ozone is considered the most detrimental air pollutant for vegetation at the global scale, with negative consequences for both provisioning and climate regulating ecosystem services. In spite of recent developments in ozone exposure metrics, from a concentration‐based to a more physiologically relevant stomatal flux‐based index, large‐scale ozone risk assessment is still complicated by a large and unexplained vari...

A key part of the uncertainty in terrestrial feedbacks on climate change is related to how and to what extent nitrogen (N) availability constrains the stimulation of terrestrial productivity by elevated CO 2 ( eCO 2 ), and whether or not this constraint will become stronger over time. We explored the ecosystem‐scale relationship between responses of plant productivity and N acquisition to eCO 2 in free‐air CO 2 enrichment ( FA...

The capacity of forests to mitigate global climate change can be negatively influenced by tropospheric ozone that impairs both photosynthesis and stomatal control of plant transpiration, thus affecting ecosystem productivity and watershed hydrology. We have evaluated individual and interactive effects of ozone and climate on late season streamflow for six forested watersheds (38–970 000 ha) located in the Southeastern United S...

Although it is established that there exist potential trade‐offs between grain yield and grain quality in wheat exposed to elevated carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ) and ozone ( O 3 ), their underlying causes remain poorly explored. To investigate the processes affecting grain quality under altered CO 2 and O 3 , we analysed 57 experiments with CO 2 or O 3 exposure in different exposure systems. The study covered 24 cultivars studied in...