Stronger Sensitivity of Plant Photosynthesis to Rising CO₂ in High Elevation Ecosystems

The CO₂-fertilisation effect (CFE) on vegetation productivity is the major driver of the enhanced land carbon sink in recent decades. CFE theoretically increases with elevation due to the higher sensitivity of carboxylation to an increase of CO₂ under lower CO₂ partial pressure, but the elevation-dependent CFE pattern has been largely overlooked. By conducting a 6-year CO₂ enrichment experiment (+100 ppm) in an alpine grassland, we show that elevated CO₂ increased gross primary production (GPP) by 25.5% ± 4.6%. Water availability and plant biomass allocation modulates CFE during different seasons. A global synthesis of 10 CO₂ enrichment experiments reveals that CFE increased with elevation. The satellite-based EC-LUE model also demonstrates a positive global elevation-dependent CFE pattern, albeit substantially weaker than that from experimental observations. Current terrestrial biosphere models, however, could not represent the elevation-dependent pattern, highlighting the need to improve the representations of plants' elevational physiological adaptation to rising CO₂ in models.