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Photosynthetic stimulation of saplings by the interaction of CO2 and water stress

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Abstract

Climate change necessitates research into interactions between elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and drought on plant photosynthetic physiology. This study describes the physiological properties of Platycladus orientalis (Chinese thuja) and Quercus variabilis (Chinese cork oak) saplings cultivated through orthogonal treatments of four CO2 concentrations combined with five soil volumetric water contents (SWC). It highlights the differences between the interactive effects from the treatments. Water stress had little effect on photosynthetic traits until the soil volumetric water contents exceeded 70–80 or 100%. Similar variations in carbon-13 isotope abundance (δ13C) of water soluble compounds (δ13CWSC) extracted from leaves of two species have been observed. Whether soil volumetric water contents exceeded or fell below the water threshold values (70–80% of field capacity for P. orientalis and 100% of field capacity for Q. variabilis), instantaneous water use efficiency decreased. Elevated carbon dioxide could increase iWUE and enhance drought tolerance, depending on stimulating net photosynthetic rates and declining stomatal conductance and transpiration rates. Augmenting either drought, excess water, or ambient carbon dioxide could alleviate the physiological inhibition caused by the stresses described above.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Hanzhi Li, Mr. Yonge Zhang, and Yangbing He from the College of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Na Zhao & Xinxiao Yu

  2. Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, People’s Republic of China

    Ping Meng

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  1. Na Zhao
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  2. Ping Meng
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Correspondence to Xinxiao Yu.

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Project funding: This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41430747) and a Grant from the Beijing Municipal Education Commission (CEFFPXM2018_ 014207_000024).

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Corresponding editor: Hu Yanbo.

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Zhao, N., Meng, P. & Yu, X. Photosynthetic stimulation of saplings by the interaction of CO2 and water stress. J. For. Res. 30, 1233–1243 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-018-0764-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-018-0764-9

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