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Some physiological and morphological responses of Pyrus boissieriana to flooding

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Abstract

European pear is a flooding-sensitive species, and for its cultivation in lowland areas, it is necessary to carry out the grafting of scions of commercial pear varieties into rootstocks belonging to flooding-tolerant wild pear species. Flooding tolerance of Pyrus boissieriana—a type of wild pear—was studied as a promissory rootstock for commercial pear. For this purpose, 3-month-old plants of P. boissieriana were subjected for 30 days to control (C), well-irrigated treatment, short-term (15 days) flooding plus 15 days recovery (F + R) and long-term (30 days) continuous flooding (F). Physiological performance, plant morphological changes and biomass accumulation were assessed. Results showed that, although stomatal conductance, transpiration and photosynthesis were progressively decreased by flooding, when flooding was short term (i.e., 2 weeks, F + R treatment) plants were able to adequately recover their physiological activity (50–74 % with respect to controls). In contrast, when plants continued to be flooded (F treatment), the physiological activity became null and the plants died quickly after the water subsided. Adventitious rooting was the most conspicuous registered morphological response to flooding, despite that flooded plants had shorter shoots and roots than control plants. Leaf and root biomass were 63 and 89 % higher under short-term flooding (F + R) than under continuous flooding (F), condition in which plants did not survive. In conclusion, P. boissieriana appears to be a promising species for its use as rootstock of commercial pear in lowland areas prone to flooding of up to 2 weeks. However, if the flooding period is extended, plants of this species are at risk of perishing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources and Marine Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Mazandaran, Iran

    Ghasem Ali Parad & Mehrdad Zarafshar

  2. IFEVA-CONICET, School of Plant Physiology, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Avenida San Martín 4453, CPA 1417 DSE, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Gustavo Gabriel Striker

  3. Department of Forestry, Gonbad Kavoos University, Gonbad Kavoos, Iran

    Ali Sattarian

Authors
  1. Ghasem Ali Parad
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  2. Mehrdad Zarafshar
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  3. Gustavo Gabriel Striker
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  4. Ali Sattarian
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Correspondence to Gustavo Gabriel Striker.

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Communicated by M. Adams.

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Parad, G.A., Zarafshar, M., Striker, G.G. et al. Some physiological and morphological responses of Pyrus boissieriana to flooding. Trees 27, 1387–1393 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-013-0886-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-013-0886-9

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