CRYPTO-AI-FUTURE · Enhanced productivity of resurrection photosynthetic organisms in a CO2-richer future: tipping the global carbon and oxidant balance

Terrestrial resurrection cryptogams, including mosses, lichens, algal and cyanobacterial films and crusts, are conspicuous photosynthetic organisms growing on soil, rocks, plants and artificial surfaces. They dominate multiple ecosystems worldwide, but the estimates of cryptogam share in global productivity are uncertain and the impact of climate change on their contribution to global carbon sink is unknown. Several cryptogams are strong emitters of organic volatiles, and due to huge surface area, they can play a major role in air oxidative status and in vegetation-climate feedbacks, but they are currently neglected due to difficulties in gauging their activity. The project hypothesizes that due to extremely large CO2 diffusion limitation, cryptogam productivity responds more strongly to the rise of atmospheric CO2 than that of vascular plants. Because of the direct effect of CO2, cryptogam photosynthetic activity and rate of colonization of as yet unoccupied surfaces increase, resulting in greater cryptogam share in global productivity and air cleansing in future CO2-richer world. The project creates novel high-throughput AI methods to functionally characterize cryptogam covers, and uses unique instrumentation and methodology to assess CO2-responsiveness of photosynthesis and volatile exchange across cryptogams, and estimates cryptogam share under current and future conditions using an array of AI and process based models. The project (1) advances ecological theory by developing the first combined economics and stress response spectrum for photosynthetic organisms, and pioneers in providing the quantitative estimates of (2) alteration of cryptogam productivity in future climates and (3) global cryptogam volatile release and air cleansing under current and future climates, and (4) expects to demonstrate that the high CO2-responsiveness of cryptogam physiological activity is slowing down the CO2-saturation of global productivity and the rate of global change.