Abstract
We studied the survival adaptation strategy of Sophora alopecuroides L. to habitat conditions in an arid desert riparian ecosystem. We examined the responses of heliotropic leaf movement to light conditions and their effects on plant photochemical performance. S. alopecuroides leaves did not show any observable nyctinastic movement but they presented sensitive diaheliotropic and paraheliotropic leaf movement in the forenoon and at midday. Solar radiation was a major factor inducing leaf movement, in addition, air temperature and vapour pressure deficit could also influence the heliotropic leaf movement in the afternoon. Both diaheliotropic leaf movement in the forenoon and paraheliotropic leaf movement at midday could help maintain higher photochemical efficiency and capability of light utilisation than fixed leaves. Paraheliotropic leaf movement at midday helped plants maintain a potentially higher photosynthetic capability and relieve a risk of photoinhibition. Our findings indicated the effective adaptation strategy of S. alopecuroides to high light, high temperature, and dry conditions in arid regions. This strategy can optimise the leaf energy balance and photochemical performance and ensure photosystem II function.
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Abbreviations
- D:
-
fraction of energy lost by thermal dissipation
- ETR:
-
electron transport rate
- F0 :
-
minimum fluorescence yield of the dark-adapted state
- F0′:
-
minimum fluorescence yield of the light-adapted state
- Fm :
-
maximum fluorescence yield of the dark-adapted state
- Fm′:
-
maximum fluorescence yield of the light-adapted state
- Fs :
-
steady-state fluorescence
- NPQ:
-
nonphotochemical quenching
- P:
-
fraction of energy allocated to PSII photochemistry
- qP :
-
photochemical quenching
- SEM:
-
scanning electron microscopy
- VPD:
-
vapor pressure deficit
- X:
-
excess excitation energy
- ΦPSII :
-
effective quantum yield of PSII in light-adapted leaves
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Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 91025025, No. 41101533).
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Zhu, C.G., Chen, Y.N., Li, W.H. et al. Heliotropic leaf movement of Sophora alopecuroides L.: An efficient strategy to optimise photochemical performance. Photosynthetica 53, 231–240 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0089-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0089-2