Was low atmospheric CO2 during the Pleistocene a limiting factor for the origin of agriculture?
Abstract
Agriculture originated independently in many distinct regions at approximately the same time in human history. This synchrony in agricultural origins indicates that a global factor may have controlled the timing of the transition from foraging to food‐producing economies. The global factor may have been a rise in atmospheric CO2 from below 200 to near 270 μol mol−1 which occurred between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago. Atmospheric CO2 directly affects photosynthesis and plant productivity, with the largest proportional responses occurring below the current level of 350 μol mol−1. In the late Pleistocene, CO2 levels near 200 μol mol−1 may have been too low to support the level of productivity required for successful establishment of agriculture. Recent studies demonstrate that atmospheric CO2 increase from 200 to 270 μol mol−1 stimulates photosynthesis and biomass productivity of C3 plants by 25% to 50%, and greatly increases the performance of C3 plants relative to weedy C4 competitors. Rising CO2 also stimulates biological nitrogen fixation and enhances the capacity of plants to obtain limiting resources such as water and mineral nutrients. These results indicate that increases in productivity following the late Pleistocene rise in CO2 may have been substantial enough to have affected human subsistence patterns in ways that promoted the development of agriculture. Increasing CO2 may have simply removed a productivity barrier to successful domestication and cultivation of plants. Through effects on ecosystem productivity, rising CO2 may also have been a catalyst for agricultural origins by promoting population growth, sedentism, and novel social relationships that in turn led to domestication and cultivation of preferred plant resources.
Citing Literature
Number of times cited: 93
- Jennifer Cunniff, Glynis Jones, Michael Charles and Colin P. Osborne, Yield responses of wild C3 and C4 crop progenitors to subambient CO2: a test for the role of CO2 limitation in the origin of agriculture, Global Change Biology, 23, 1, (380-393), (2016).
- Gary W. Crawford, Plant Domestication in East Asia, Handbook of East and Southeast Asian Archaeology, 10.1007/978-1-4939-6521-2_26, (421-435), (2017).
- Sanjay Kumar and Surender Kumar Vats, Plant Adaptation in Mountain Ecosystem, Plant Biotechnology: Principles and Applications, 10.1007/978-981-10-2961-5_10, (249-271), (2017).
- Rita Dias, Cleia Detry and Nuno Bicho, Changes in the exploitation dynamics of small terrestrial vertebrates and fish during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition in the SW Iberian Peninsula: A review, The Holocene, 26, 6, (964), (2016).
- Pradip Adhikari, Srinivasulu Ale, James P. Bordovsky, Kelly R. Thorp, Naga R. Modala, Nithya Rajan and Edward M. Barnes, Simulating future climate change impacts on seed cotton yield in the Texas High Plains using the CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton model, Agricultural Water Management, 164, (317), (2016).
- Jin-Chun Liu, Andries A. Temme, William K. Cornwell, Richard S. P. van Logtestijn, Rien Aerts and Johannes H. C. Cornelissen, Does plant size affect growth responses to water availability at glacial, modern and future CO2 concentrations?, Ecological Research, 10.1007/s11284-015-1330-y, 31, 2, (213-227), (2016).
- Rajib Karmakar, Indranil Das, Debashis Dutta and Amitava Rakshit, Potential Effects of Climate Change on Soil Properties: A Review, Science International, 4, 2, (51), (2016).
- Jennifer Cunniff, Michael Charles, Glynis Jones and Colin P. Osborne, Reduced plant water status under sub-ambientpCO2limits plant productivity in the wild progenitors of C3and C4cereals, Annals of Botany, 118, 6, (1163), (2016).
- 玉楼 孙, Research Progress of the Effects of Low CO2 on Plant, Hans Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 06, 06, (145), (2016).
- Benjamin I. Cook, Edward R. Cook, Jason E. Smerdon, Richard Seager, A. Park Williams, Sloan Coats, David W. Stahle and José Villanueva Díaz, North American megadroughts in the Common Era: reconstructions and simulations, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 7, 3, (411-432), (2016).
- Simone Riehl, The Role of the Local Environment in the Slow Pace of Emerging Agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, Journal of Ethnobiology, 36, 3, (512), (2016).
- Eldor A. Paul, The nature and dynamics of soil organic matter: Plant inputs, microbial transformations, and organic matter stabilization, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 10.1016/j.soilbio.2016.04.001, 98, (109-126), (2016).
- Andries A. Temme, Jin Chun Liu, William K. Cornwell, Johannes H. C. Cornelissen and Rien Aerts, Winners always win: growth of a wide range of plant species from low to future high CO2, Ecology and Evolution, 5, 21, (4949-4961), (2015).
- Xiaoyan Yang, Zhikun Ma, Jun Li, Jincheng Yu, Chris Stevens and Yijie Zhuang, Comparing subsistence strategies in different landscapes of North China 10,000 years ago, The Holocene, 25, 12, (1957), (2015).
- Martin Williams, Interactions between fluvial and eolian geomorphic systems and processes: Examples from the Sahara and Australia, CATENA, 134, (4), (2015).
- S. Riehl, E. Asouti, D. Karakaya, B. M. Starkovich, M. Zeidi and N. J. Conard, Resilience at the Transition to Agriculture: The Long-Term Landscape and Resource Development at the Aceramic Neolithic Tell Site of Chogha Golan (Iran), BioMed Research International, 2015, (1), (2015).
- Mark A. Blumler, Agriculturalism, Basics in Human Evolution, 10.1016/B978-0-12-802652-6.00025-6, (349-365), (2015).
- Salvador Aljazairi and Salvador Nogués, The effects of depleted, current and elevated growth [CO2] in wheat are modulated by water availability, Environmental and Experimental Botany, 112, (55), (2015).
- Dolores R. Piperno, Irene Holst, Klaus Winter and Owen McMillan, Teosinte before domestication: Experimental study of growth and phenotypic variability in Late Pleistocene and early Holocene environments, Quaternary International, 363, (65), (2015).
- G. Larson, D. R. Piperno, R. G. Allaby, M. D. Purugganan, L. Andersson, M. Arroyo-Kalin, L. Barton, C. Climer Vigueira, T. Denham, K. Dobney, A. N. Doust, P. Gepts, M. T. P. Gilbert, K. J. Gremillion, L. Lucas, L. Lukens, F. B. Marshall, K. M. Olsen, J. C. Pires, P. J. Richerson, R. Rubio de Casas, O. I. Sanjur, M. G. Thomas and D. Q. Fuller, Current perspectives and the future of domestication studies, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 17, (6139), (2014).
- A. Gessler, J. P. Ferrio, R. Hommel, K. Treydte, R. A. Werner and R. K. Monson, Stable isotopes in tree rings: towards a mechanistic understanding of isotope fractionation and mixing processes from the leaves to the wood, Tree Physiology, 10.1093/treephys/tpu040, 34, 8, (796-818), (2014).
- P. Gepts, Domestication of Plants, Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems, 10.1016/B978-0-444-52512-3.00231-X, (474-486), (2014).
- Gohar Ayub, Joana Zaragoza-Castells, Kevin L. Griffin and Owen K. Atkin, Leaf respiration in darkness and in the light under pre-industrial, current and elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, Plant Science, 226, (120), (2014).
- Salvador Aljazairi, Claudia Arias, Elena Sánchez, Gladys Lino and Salvador Nogués, Effects of pre-industrial, current and future [CO2] in traditional and modern wheat genotypes, Journal of Plant Physiology, 171, 17, (1654), (2014).
- Yunpu Zheng, Ming Xu, Ruixing Hou, Ruichang Shen, Shuai Qiu and Zhu Ouyang, Effects of experimental warming on stomatal traits in leaves of maize (ea may L.), Ecology and Evolution, 3, 9, (3095-3111), (2013).
- A. A. Temme, W. K. Cornwell, J. H. C. Cornelissen and R. Aerts, Meta‐analysis reveals profound responses of plant traits to glacial CO2 levels, Ecology and Evolution, 3, 13, (4525-4535), (2013).
- Carl P. Boardman, Vincent Gauci, Andrew Fox, Stephen Blake and David J. Beerling, Reduction of the temperature sensitivity of minerotrophic fen methane emissions by simulated glacial atmospheric carbon dioxide starvation, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 118, 2, (462-470), (2013).
- Cory J. Lindgren, Karen L. Castro, Heather A. Coiner, Robert E. Nurse and Stephen J. Darbyshire, The Biology of Invasive Alien Plants in Canada. 12. Pueraria montana var. lobata (Willd.) Sanjappa & Predeep, Canadian Journal of Plant Science, 93, 1, (71), (2013).
- R. F. Sage and A. Weber, Photorespiratory compensation: a driver for biological diversity, Plant Biology, 15, 4, (624-638), (2013).
- Christopher Rico, Jarmila Pittermann, H. Wayne Polley, Michael J. Aspinwall and Phillip A. Fay, The effect of subambient to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration on vascular function in Helianthus annuus: implications for plant response to climate change, New Phytologist, 199, 4, (956-965), (2013).
- J.P. Ferrio, G. Arab, R. Buxó, E. Guerrero, M. Molist, J. Voltas and J.L. Araus, Agricultural expansion and settlement economy in Tell Halula (Mid-Euphrates valley): A diachronic study from early Neolithic to present, Journal of Arid Environments, 86, (104), (2012).
- Patrick J. Vogan and Rowan F. Sage, Effects of low atmospheric CO2 and elevated temperature during growth on the gas exchange responses of C3, C3–C4 intermediate, and C4 species from three evolutionary lineages of C4 photosynthesis, Oecologia, 169, 2, (341), (2012).
- David T. Tissue and James D. Lewis, Learning from the past: how low [CO2] studies inform plant and ecosystem response to future climate change, New Phytologist, 194, 1, (4-6), (2012).
- Tao Sang, Toward the Domestication of Lignocellulosic Energy Crops: Learning from Food Crop Domestication, Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, 53, 2, (96-104), (2010).
- Lewis H. Ziska and Jeffrey S. Dukes, An Evaluation of the Impact of Rising Carbon Dioxide and Climatic Change on Weed Biology: From the Cell to the Plant, Weed Biology and Climate Change, (39-59), (2011).
- T. Douglas Price and Ofer Bar-Yosef, The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas, Current Anthropology, 52, S4, (S163), (2011).
- Robert G. Elston, Dong Guanghui and Zhang Dongju, Late Pleistocene intensification technologies in Northern China, Quaternary International, 242, 2, (401), (2011).
- Jörn Germer, Joachim Sauerborn, Folkard Asch, Jan de Boer, Jürgen Schreiber, Gerd Weber and Joachim Müller, Skyfarming an ecological innovation to enhance global food security, Journal für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit, 6, 2, (237), (2011).
- Daniel Zizumbo-Villarreal and Patricia Colunga-GarcíaMarín, Origin of agriculture and plant domestication in West Mesoamerica, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 57, 6, (813), (2010).
- Amy Bogaard and Nicki Whitehouse, Early agriculture in uncertain climates: themes and approaches, Environmental Archaeology, 15, 2, (109), (2010).
- Jennifer Cunniff, Michael Charles, Glynis Jones and Colin P. Osborne, Was low atmospheric CO2a limiting factor in the origin of agriculture?, Environmental Archaeology, 15, 2, (113), (2010).
- Dorian Q. Fuller, Yo-Ichiro Sato, Cristina Castillo, Ling Qin, Alison R. Weisskopf, Eleanor J. Kingwell-Banham, Jixiang Song, Sung-Mo Ahn and Jacob van Etten, Consilience of genetics and archaeobotany in the entangled history of rice, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2, 2, (115), (2010).
- A.H. Laskar, N. Sharma, R. Ramesh, R.A. Jani and M.G. Yadava, Paleoclimate and paleovegetation of Lower Narmada Basin, Gujarat, Western India, inferred from stable carbon and oxygen isotopes, Quaternary International, 227, 2, (183), (2010).
- Christopher E. Doughty, The development of agriculture in the Americas: an ecological perspective, Ecosphere, 1, 6, (1-11), (2010).
- Laci M. Gerhart and Joy K. Ward, Plant responses to low [CO2] of the past, New Phytologist, 188, 3, (674-695), (2010).
- BARNEY S. KGOPE, WILLIAM J. BOND and GUY F. MIDGLEY, Growth responses of African savanna trees implicate atmospheric [CO2] as a driver of past and current changes in savanna tree cover, Austral Ecology, 35, 4, (451-463), (2009).
- T. D. Price, Ancient farming in eastern North America, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 16, (6427), (2009).
- Axel Kleidon, Climatic constraints on maximum levels of human metabolic activity and their relation to human evolution and global change, Climatic Change, 95, 3-4, (405), (2009).
- Christine E. Edwards, Monia S. H. Haselhorst, Autumn M. McKnite, Brent E. Ewers, David G. Williams and Cynthia Weinig, Genotypes of Brassica rapa respond differently to plant-induced variation in air CO2 concentration in growth chambers with standard and enhanced venting, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 119, 6, (991), (2009).
- Malcolm Possell and C. Nicholas Hewitt, Gas exchange and photosynthetic performance of the tropical tree Acacia nigrescens when grown in different CO2 concentrations, Planta, 229, 4, (837), (2009).
- Miquel A Gonzàlez‐Meler, Elena Blanc‐Betes, Charles E Flower, Joy K Ward and Nuria Gomez‐Casanovas, Plastic and adaptive responses of plant respiration to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration, Physiologia Plantarum, 137, 4, (473-484), (2009).
- Joy K. Ward, David A. Myers and Richard B. Thomas, Physiological and Growth Responses of C3 and C4 Plants to Reduced Temperature When Grown at Low CO2 of the Last Ice Age, Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, 50, 11, (1388-1395), (2008).
- Valery J. Terwilliger, Zewdu Eshetu, Albert Colman, Tesfaye Bekele, Alemu Gezahgne and Marilyn L. Fogel, Reconstructing palaeoenvironment from δ13C and δ15N values of soil organic matter: A calibration from arid and wetter elevation transects in Ethiopia, Geoderma, 147, 3-4, (197), (2008).
- Lewis H. Ziska, Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Plant Biology: The Overlooked Paradigm, DNA and Cell Biology, 27, 4, (165), (2008).
- JENNIFER CUNNIFF, COLIN P. OSBORNE, BRAD S. RIPLEY, MICHAEL CHARLES and GLYNIS JONES, Response of wild C4 crop progenitors to subambient CO2 highlights a possible role in the origin of agriculture, Global Change Biology, 14, 3, (576-587), (2007).
- Catherine H. Yansa, Lake Records of Northern Plains Paleoindian and Early Archaic Environments: The “Park Oasis” Hypothesis, Plains Anthropologist, 52, 201, (109), (2007).
- Robert L. Bettinger, Loukas Barton, Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd, Hui Wang and Won Choi, The transition to agriculture in northwestern China, Late Quaternary Climate Change and Human Adaptation in Arid China, 10.1016/S1571-0866(07)09008-2, (83-101), (2007).
- Dolores R. Piperno, Prehistoric human occupation and impacts on Neotropical forest landscapes during the Late Pleistocene and Early/Middle Holocene, Tropical Rainforest Responses to Climatic Change, 10.1007/978-3-540-48842-2_7, (193-218), (2007).
- CATHERINE D. CAMPBELL and ROWAN F. SAGE, Interactions between the effects of atmospheric CO2 content and P nutrition on photosynthesis in white lupin (Lupinus albus L.), Plant, Cell & Environment, 29, 5, (844-853), (2006).
- Lewis Ziska and G Brett Runion, Future Weed, Pest, and Disease Problems for Plants, Agroecosystems in a Changing Climate, 10.1201/9781420003826.ch11, (261-287), (2009).
- L. H. Ziska, S. D. Emche, E. L. Johnson, K. George, D. R. Reed and R. C. Sicher, Alterations in the production and concentration of selected alkaloids as a function of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide and air temperature: implications for ethno‐pharmacology, Global Change Biology, 11, 10, (1798-1807), (2005).
- Catherine D. Campbell, Rowan F. Sage, Ferit Kocacinar and Danielle A. Way, Estimation of the whole‐plant CO2 compensation point of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), Global Change Biology, 11, 11, (1956-1967), (2005).
- Brian F. Byrd, Reassessing the Emergence of Village Life in the Near East, Journal of Archaeological Research, 13, 3, (231), (2005).
- Rowan F. Sage, The evolution of C4 photosynthesis, New Phytologist, 161, 2, (341-370), (2003).
- David R. Harris, Climatic change and the beginnings of agriculture, Evolution on Planet Earth, 10.1016/B978-012598655-7/50047-1, (379-394), (2003).
- Lewis H. Ziska, The impact of nitrogen supply on the potential response of a noxious, invasive weed, Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) to recent increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, Physiologia Plantarum, 119, 1, (105-112), (2003).
- José Luis Araus, Gustavo Ariel Slafer, Ramón Buxó and Ignacio Romagosa, Productivity in prehistoric agriculture: physiological models for the quantification of cereal yields as an alternative to traditional approaches, Journal of Archaeological Science, 30, 6, (681), (2003).
- H. Maherali, C. D. Reid, H. W. Polley, H. B. Johnson and R. B. Jackson, Stomatal acclimation over a subambient to elevated CO2 gradient in a C3/C4 grassland, Plant, Cell & Environment, 25, 4, (557-566), (2002).
- , References, Environmental Physiology of Plants, 10.1016/B978-0-08-054981-1.50013-4, (313-345), (2002).
- C. D. Campbell and R. F. Sage, Interactions between atmospheric CO2 concentration and phosphorus nutrition on the formation of proteoid roots in white lupin (Lupinus albus L.), Plant, Cell & Environment, 25, 8, (1051-1059), (2002).
- Francesco Salamini, Hakan Özkan, Andrea Brandolini, Ralf Schäfer-Pregl and William Martin, Genetics and geography of wild cereal domestication in the near east, Nature Reviews Genetics, 3, 6, (429), (2002).
- Laurel J. Anderson, Hafiz Maherali, Hyrum B. Johnson, H. Wayne Polley and Robert B. Jackson, Gas exchange and photosynthetic acclimation over subambient to elevated CO2 in a C3–C4 grassland, Global Change Biology, 7, 6, (693-707), (2001).
- R. F. Sage, Environmental and Evolutionary Preconditionsfor the Origin and Diversification of the C4 PhotosyntheticSyndrome, Plant Biology, 3, 3, (202-213), (2008).
- Rowan F. Sage, C4 Plants, Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, 10.1016/B0-12-226865-2/00040-7, (575-598), (2001).
- Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd and Robert L. Bettinger, Was Agriculture Impossible during the Pleistocene but Mandatory during the Holocene? A Climate Change Hypothesis, American Antiquity, 66, 03, (387), (2001).
- José Luis Araus, Gustavo Ariel Slafer, Ignacio Romagosa and Miquel Molist, FOCUS: Estimated Wheat Yields During the Emergence of Agriculture Based on the Carbon Isotope Discrimination of Grains: Evidence from a 10th Millennium BP Site on the Euphrates, Journal of Archaeological Science, 28, 4, (341), (2001).
- Rowan F Sage and John R Coleman, Effects of low atmospheric CO2 on plants: more than a thing of the past, Trends in Plant Science, 6, 1, (18), (2001).
- O Bar-Yosef, The Impact of Radiocarbon Dating on Old World Archaeology: Past Achievements and Future Expectations, Radiocarbon, 42, 01, (23), (2000).
- R.F. Sage, C3 versus C4 photosynthesis in rice: ecophysiological perspectives**Sheehy JE, Mitchell PL, Hardy B. editors. 2000. Redesigning rice photosynthesis to increase yield. Proceedings of the Workshop on The Quest to Reduce Hunger: Redesigning Rice Photosynthesis, 30 Nov.-3 Dec. 1999. Los Baños, Philippines. Makati City (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute and Amsterdam (The Netherlands): Elsevier Science B.V. 293 p., Redesigning Rice Photosynthesis to Increase Yield, Proceedings of the Workshop on the Quest to Reduce Hunger: Redesigning Rice Photosynthesis, 10.1016/S0928-3420(00)80004-X, (13-35), (2000).
- J. M. Grünzweig and CH. Körner, Growth and reproductive responses to elevated CO2 in wild cereals of the northern Negev of Israel, Global Change Biology, 6, 6, (631-638), (2001).
- Zhijun Zhao and Dolores R. Piperno, Late Pleistocene/Holocene Environments in the middle Yangtze River Valley, China and rice (oryza sativa L.) domestication: The phytolith evidence, Geoarchaeology, 15, 2, (203-222), (2000).
- Rowan F. Sage and Sharon A. Cowling, Implications of Stress in Low CO2 Atmospheres of the Past, Carbon Dioxide and Environmental Stress, 10.1016/B978-012460370-7/50012-7, (289-308), (1999).
- A. M. Mannion, Domestication and the origins of agriculture: an appraisal, Progress in Physical Geography, 23, 1, (37), (1999).
- Sharon A. Cowling and Martin T. Sykes, Physiological Significance of Low Atmospheric CO2 for Plant–Climate Interactions, Quaternary Research, 52, 02, (237), (1999).
- Nikolaas J. van der Merwe and Hartmut Tschauner, C4 Plants and the Development of Human Societies, C4 Plant Biology, 10.1016/B978-012614440-6/50016-1, (509-549), (1999).
- Cowling Sharon A., Simulated effects of low atmospheric CO2 on structure and composition of North American vegetation at the Last Glacial Maximum, Global Ecology and Biogeography, 8, 2, (81-93), (2001).
- JoY. K. Ward, David T. Tissue, Richard B. Thomas, . And and BoyD. R. Strain, Comparative responses of model C3 and C4 plants to drought in low and elevated CO2, Global Change Biology, 5, 8, (857-867), (2001).
- Rowan F. Sage, Why C4 Photosynthesis?, C4 Plant Biology, 10.1016/B978-012614440-6/50002-1, (3-16), (1999).
- Mark Pagani, Michael A. Arthur and Katherine H. Freeman, Miocene evolution of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Paleoceanography, 14, 3, (273-292), (2010).
- Ofer Bar-Yosef, On the Nature of Transitions: the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and the Neolithic Revolution, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 8, 02, (141), (1998).
- , References, The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics, 10.1016/B978-012557180-7/50008-4, (329-369), (1998).
- S. A. Cowling and R. F. Sage, Interactive effects of low atmospheric CO2 and elevated temperature on growth, photosynthesis and respiration in Phaseolus vulgaris, Plant, Cell & Environment, 21, 4, (427-435), (2002).
- J. K. WARD and B. R. STRAIN, Effects of low and elevated CO2 partial pressure on growth and reproduction of Arabidopsis thaliana from different elevations, Plant, Cell & Environment, 20, 2, (254-260), (2008).
