Light responses of photosynthesis and transpiration of two tomato cultivars under ambient and altered CO2 and O2

Young plants of two tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) cultivars, ‘Sonatine’ and ‘F6-IVT’, were examined for whole plant photosynthesis and transpiration in a closed gas-exchange system under different light levels and a combination of high or low oxygen (21 or 1%) and high or low carbon dioxide concentrations (1850 or 550 mg m^?3). With saturating light, both cultivars showed approximately equivalent increases in photosynthesis in response to lowering the oxygen concentration, raising the carbon dioxide, or both. Under non-saturating light, ‘F6-IVT’ responded positively to lowered oxygen but CO₂ had little effect. In ‘Sonatine’, changes in O₂ as well as CO₂ gave photosynthetic enhancement under low light. Stomates responded primarily to CO₂ with little response to O₂. As a result of the stomatal behavior to light, plant water-use efficiency in the short term peaked at moderate light levels, was enhanced by low O₂, but was enhanced most by high CO₂, regardless of O₂ concentration.