abstract
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The response of wheat to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations (e[CO2]) is likely to be dependent on nitrogen fertilization. However, little information exists regarding the multigenerational interactions between e[CO2] and N supply on biomass and yield components. To investigate this, five Chinese wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars were grown under two CO2 (400 and 800 ppm) and two N (normal and double) levels in greenhouse for three consecutive generations. Our results showed a significant interactive effect of generation, cultivar and N supply on the response of plant yield to e[CO2]. In general, e[CO2] increased shoot dry weight (SDW), grain yield (GY), grain number (GN) and spike number (SN) at both N levels within each generation but the variation highly depended on cultivars and strongly differed between generations. Thousand grain weight (TGW) was increased by e[CO2] in the first two generations (F1 and F2) but decreased in the third generation (F3) at both N levels. At normal N level, the increase of harvest index (HI) by e[CO2] was more pronounced in F3 than in F1 while at double N level, the increase was same in F1 and F2 but 46% less in F3. The results indicate a positive impact of e[CO2] on wheat yield in the long term but it varied across generations and was closely related to cultivar and N supply.