The impact of elevated temperatures and CO2 on seed germination and early plant morphology: The case of native Fabaceae plants in the UAE

This study aimed to investigate the impact of elevated temperature and CO 2 on three arid UAE plants ( Prosopis cineraria , Senna italica , and Tephrosia nubica ) and ultimately to identify species that thrive well under these conditions. The plants were grown and monitored under two different environments (Greenhouse conditions, elevated CO 2 (eCO 2 ) with 800–1000 ppm). Seed germination percentage (G) and plant morphological characteristics like number of leaves and root/shoot ratio were observed to assess the different plant growth in each treatment. All species displayed a decrease in germination percentage with increasing temperatures, and eCO 2 did not improved the germination percentage with these elevated temperatures compared to greenhouse treatment. P. cineraria displayed a significant increase in all morphological characteristics with eCO 2 compared to greenhouse treatment (number of leaves: 670, shoot length: 40 cm, root length: 42 cm, shoot weight: 2 g, dry shoot weight: 0.61 g, root weight: 0.53 g, dry root weight: 0.24 g). Overall, S. italica and T. nubica displayed a significant decrease with eCO 2 .