Limitations to photosynthesis of lettuce grown under tropical conditions: alleviation by root-zone cooling
2001
He, J. | Lee, S.K. | Dodd, I.C.
Aerial parts of lettuce plants were grown under natural tropical fluctuating ambient temperatures, but with their roots exposed to two different root-zone temperatures (RZTs): a constant 20 degrees C-RZT and a fluctuating ambient (A-) RZT from 23-40 degrees C. Plants grown at A-RZT showed lower photosynthetic CO2 assimilation (A), stomatal conductance (g(s)), midday leaf relative water content (RWC), and chlorophyll fluorescence ratio F(v)/F(m) than 20 degrees C-RZT plants on both sunny and cloudy days. Substantial midday depression of A and g(s) occurred on both sunny and cloudy days in both RZT treatments, although F(v)/F(m) did not vary diurnally on cloudy days. Reciprocal temperature transfer experiments investigated the occurrence and possible causes of stomatal and non-stomatal limitations of photosynthesis. For both temperature transfers, light-saturated stomatal conductance (g(s sat)) and photosynthetic CO2 assimilation (A(sat)) were highly correlated with each other and with midday RWC, suggesting that A was limited by water stress-mediated stomatal closure. However, prolonged growth at A-RZT reduced light- and CO2-saturated photosynthetic O2 evolution (P(max)), indicating non-stomatal limitation of photosynthesis. Tight temporal coupling of leaf nitrogen content and P(max) during both temperature transfers suggested that decreased nutrient status caused this non-stomatal limitation of photosynthesis.
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