Chapter 2 Stomatal Responses to Climate Change

There remains an ongoing need to make crops more productive in the face of further increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations as predicted under climate change, along with higher global surface temperatures and more prolonged, severe and frequent periods of drought. With over 90 % of water transpired by plants diffusing through stomata, studying these small, morphologically varied valves in leaf surfaces remains critical to our understanding the consequences of climate change on stomatal responses, and by extension crop productivity. In the short term, stomata adjust aperture in response to changes in environmental variables affecting carbon assimilation and water loss. In the longer term, adjustments to stomatal density and size may occur, in conjunction with a range of other responses from the plant.