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Influence of canopy position, needle age and season on the foliar gas exchange of Pinus canariensis

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Abstract

We investigated the seasonal variation in the gas exchange of current and 1-year-old needles in the upper sun and lower shade crown of adult Pinus canariensis trees. In general, current year needles displayed lower gas exchange rates than the 1-year-old needles. In both needle age classes, gas exchange was significantly lower in the shade than in the sun crown. However irrespective of crown position and needle age, maximum daily net photosynthesis, transpiration, and stomatal conductance for water vapour were generally higher during the wet and cold winter as compared to the dry and hot summer. These higher gas exchange values obtained during the cold and wet season can mainly be explained by higher soil-water availability and lower evaporative demand as compared to the warm and dry seaon. In addition, we also observed a displacement in the temperature optimum of net photosynthesis towards lower temperatures during the cold and wet season as compared to the warm and dry season. The observed gas exchange characteristics indicate a conservative water saving strategy and thus allowing P. canariensis needles to maintain a positive carbon gain even at periods of high evaporative demand and low soil-water availability.

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Acknowledgments

The authors want to express their gratitude to the Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deportes of the Canarian Government for the concession of a PhD grant to Juliane Peters and the projects P5119118 and PI042005/070 (co-financed by the European Social Fund). Thanks also to the bilateral Spanish-Austrian project (HU2005-0007) and CGL2006- 10210/BOS (MEC, Spanish Government).

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Author notes

  1. J. Peters & Á. M. González-Rodríguez

    Present address: Canarian Institut for Agricultural Investigations (ICIA), Apartado 60, 38200, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biology (Plant Physiology), University of La Laguna, C/Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez s/n, 38207, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

    J. Peters, Á. M. González-Rodríguez, M. S. Jiménez & D. Morales

  2. Department of Alpine Timberline Ecophysiology, Federal Research and Trainings Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape, Rennweg 1, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    G. Wieser

Authors
  1. J. Peters
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  2. Á. M. González-Rodríguez
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  3. M. S. Jiménez
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  4. D. Morales
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  5. G. Wieser
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. Wieser.

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Communicated by R. Matyssek.

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Peters, J., González-Rodríguez, Á.M., Jiménez, M.S. et al. Influence of canopy position, needle age and season on the foliar gas exchange of Pinus canariensis . Eur J Forest Res 127, 293–299 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-008-0205-y

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