Annals of Botany

• Background and aims Respiration of autotrophs is an important component of their carbon balance as well as the global carbon dioxide budget. How autotrophic respiration may respond to increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, [CO₂], in the atmosphere remains uncertain. The existence of short-term responses of respiration rates of plant leaves to [CO₂] is controversial. Short-term responses of respiration to temperature are not disputed. This work compared responses of dark respiration and two processes dependent on the energy and reductant supplied by dark respiration, translocation and nitrate reduction, to changes in [CO₂] and temperature.

• Methods Mature soybean leaves were exposed for a single 8-h dark period to one of five combinations of air temperature and [CO₂], and rates of respiration, translocation and nitrate reduction were determined for each treatment.

• Key results Low temperature and elevated [CO₂] reduced rates of respiration, translocation and nitrate reduction, while increased temperature and low [CO₂] increased rates of all three processes. A given change in the rate of respiration was accompanied by the same change in the rate of translocation or nitrate reduction, regardless of whether the altered respiration was caused by a change in temperature or by a change in [CO₂].

• Conclusions These results make it highly unlikely that the observed responses of respiration rate to [CO₂] were artefacts due to errors in the measurement of carbon dioxide exchange rates in this case, and indicate that elevated [CO₂] at night can affect translocation and nitrate reduction through its effect on respiration.