An international workshop on `CO2 and Biosphere' was held in Wageningen, the Netherlands on 15-19 November 1991 as part of the activities of the CO2 Commission of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research: this volume includes 32 papers presented at the workshop. The CO2 Commission stimulates and coordinates a broad range of research projects related to the greenhouse effect. This is reflected in the scope of papers presented, ranging from detailed analyses of ecological and physiological effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment to biosphere-atmosphere aspects, such as regional evaporation, energy balance and ecosystem responses. Relevant directions for future research are indicated by presentations on carbon fluxes in the soil, secondary plant metabolism and plant-insect interactions.

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Methodology.- Open top chambers for exposing plant canopies to elevated CO2 concentration and for measuring net gas exchange.- Free air carbon dioxide enrichment: development, progress, results.- Analysing the responses of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation to long-term elevation of atmospheric CO2 concentration.- Plant water relations and the effects of elevated CO2: a review and suggestions for future research.- Ecophysiological and ecosystem responses: effects of CO2 enrichment on growth and production.- Effects of increasing atmospheric CO2 on vegetation.- Interspecific variation in the growth response of plants to an elevated ambient CO2 concentration.- Root growth and functioning under atmospheric CO2 enrichment.- Crop responses to CO2 enrichment.- Interactions between C3 and C4 salt marsh plant species during four years of exposure to elevated atmospheric CO2.- Plant responses to past concentrations of CO2.- Increasing CO2 and plant-plant interactions: effects on natural vegetation.- Response to CO2 enrichment: interaction with soil and atmospheric conditions.- Plant responses to atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment: interactions with some soil and atmospheric conditions.- Responses of plants to CO2 under water limited conditions.- Interaction between elevated atmospheric concentration of CO2 and humidity on plant growth: comparison between cotton and radish.- The greenhouse effect: the impacts of carbon dioxide (CO2), ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation and ozone (O3) on vegetation (crops).- Contrasting crop species responses to CO2 and temperature: rice, soybean and citrus.- Indirect responses to CO2 enrichment: interactions with soil organisms and soil processes.- Rising CO2, secondary plant metabolism, plant-herbivore interactions and litter decomposition Theoretical considerations.- The influence of plant carbon dioxide and nutrient supply on susceptibility to insect herbivores.- Implications of increased carbon dioxide levels for carbon input and turnover in soils.- CO2 enrichment: biosphere-atmosphere exchange.- Response of the terrestrial biosphere to global climate change and human perturbation.- Impact of CO2 enrichment on the regional evapotranspiration of agroecosystems, a theoretical and numerical modelling study.- The need for micrometeorological research of the response of the energy balance of vegetated surfaces to CO2 enrichment.- Interaction of ocean and biosphere in their transient responses to increasing atmospheric CO2.- CO2 and plants: revisited.- Environmental policy and the greenhouse effect.- Case studies.- Assimilation, respiration and allocation of carbon in Plantago major as affected by atmospheric CO2 levels A case study.- Interactive effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment, salinity and flooding on growth of C3 (Elymus athericus) and C4 (Spartina anglica) salt marsh species.- Studying the effect of elevated CO2 in the open in a naturally enriched environment in Central Italy.- Elevated CO2 and the mineral content of herbaceous and woody plants.- Effects of elevated CO2 on growth, photosynthesis and respiration of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.).- Effects of long-term elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide on Loliurn perenne and Trifolium repens, using a simple photosynthesis model.- The combined effects of elevated CO2 levels and UV-B radiation on growth characteristics of Elymus athericus (=E. pycnanathus) 433.- Photosynthetic acclimation in tomato plants grown in high CO2.- Posters.- Description of branch bags and a system to control the CO2 concentration within them.- Effects of elevated CO2 on birch.- Acclimation of Lolium temulentum to enhanced carbon dioxide.- Effects of elevated CO2 on mature Sitka spruce.- Effects of elevated CO2 on Sitka spruce seedlings.- Interaction of CO2 and temperature in the growth and yield of winter wheat: test of ARCWHEAT model.- The effect of CO2 concentration on barley.- Interactive effects of CO2 and O3 on growth of radish (Raphanus sativus L.).- Growth response to CO2 and NO3-: experimentation and modelling on waterhyacinth.- Characteristics of an UV-B transmitting open top chamber.