Stomatal behaviour moderates the water cost of CO₂ acquisition for 21 boreal and temperate species under experimental climate change

The linkage of stomatal behaviour with photosynthesis is critical to understanding water and carbon cycles under global change. The relationship of stomatal conductance (g(s)) and CO2 assimilation (A(net)) across a range of environmental contexts, as represented in the model parameter (g(1)), has served as a proxy of the marginal water cost of carbon acquisition. We use g(1) to assess species differences in stomatal behaviour to a decade of open-air experimental climate change manipulations, asking whether generalisable patterns exist across species and climate contexts. A(net)-g(s) measurements (17 727) for 21 boreal and temperate tree species under ambient and +3.3 degrees C warming, and ambient and similar to 40% summer rainfall reduction, provided >2700 estimates of g(1). Warming and/or reduced rainfall treatments both lowered g(1) because those treatments resulted in lower soil moisture and because stomatal behaviour changed more in warming when soil moisture was low. Species tended to respond similarly, although, in species from warmer and drier habitats, g(1) tended to be slightly higher and to be the least sensitive to the decrease in soil water. Overall, both warming and rainfall reduction consistently made stomatal behaviour more conservative in terms of water loss per unit carbon gain across 21 species and a decade of experimental observation.