Carbon dioxide enrichment technologies for crop response studies

859-866 In recent years, a number of technologies have been developed to study the impact of rising atmospheric CO2 in agricultural systems. Earlier techniques were based on the controlled environment such as phytotrons, closed chambers, cuvettes etc, which are far from the natural environment, in which plants generally grow. However, technologies such as FACE (Free Air CO2 Enrichment), OTCs (Open Top Chambers) and SPAR (Soil Plant Atmosphere Research) with holistic approach have been developed and are being currently used for crop response studies. South Asian Mid FACE and open top chambers are such holistic technologies, developed at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, for crop response studies under natural field condition. The data base generated using these facilities will be more realistic for impact assessment analysis of the rising atmospheric CO2 on crop plants and for developing models to predict responses for future climatic conditions.