plants Article Impact of Ambient and Elevated [CO2] in Low Light Levels on Growth, Physiology and Nutrient Uptake of Tropical Perennial Legume Cover Crops Virupax C. Baligar 1,* , Marshall K. Elson 1, Zhenli He 2 , Yuncong Li 3 , Arlicelio de Q. Paiva 4 , Alex-Alan F. Almeida 5 and Dario Ahnert 5 1 USDA-ARS-Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA;
[email protected] 2 Indian River Research and Education Center, Department of Soil and Water Sciences, IFAS, University of Florida, Fort Pierce, FL 34945, USA; zhe@ufl.edu 3 Tropical Research and Education Center, Department of Soil and Water Sciences, IFAS, University of Florida, Homestead, FL 33031, USA; yunli@ufl.edu 4 Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, State University of Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, BA 45650-000, Brazil;
[email protected] 5 Department of Biological Science, State University of Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, BA 45650-000, Brazil;
[email protected] (A.-A.F.A.);
[email protected] (D.A.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-301-504-6492 Abstract: At early stages of establishment of tropical plantation crops, inclusion of legume cover crops could reduce soil degradation due to erosion and nutrient leaching. As understory plants these cover crops receive limited irradiance and can be subjected to elevated CO2 at ground level. A glasshouse experiment was undertaken to assess the effects of ambient (450 µmol mol−1) and −1 elevated (700 µmol mol ) levels of [CO2] on growth, physiological changes and nutrient uptake of six perennial legume cover crops (Perennial Peanut, Ea-Ea, Mucuna, Pigeon pea, Lab lab, Cowpea) Citation: Baligar, V.C.; Elson, M.K.; under low levels of photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD; 100, 200, and 400 µmol m−2 s−1).