Plant responses to climate warming : physiological adjustments and implications for plant functioning in a future, warmer world

The Earth’s average temperatures have been rising since the start of the Industrial Revolution, in major part driven by rising concentrations of carbon dioxide. Correlated with the rise of atmospheric CO2 from ~280 ppm (before the start of the Industrial Revolution) to the current 410 ppm, the average temperature has warmed by about 1°C since 1880 (Ciais et al., 2013). However, as CO2 concentrations continue to rise, the Earth will experience further warming, although how much warming will also depend on political will and human capacity to reduce carbon emissions in the near future. As such, rising temperatures will create new climate conditions in many places, affecting species’ functioning and their current geographical distributions.