Abstract
For Tunisian olive tree orchards, nitrogen deficiency is an important nutritional problem, in addition to the availability of water. Establishment of relationships between nutrients such as nitrogen and ecophysiological parameters is a promising method to manage fertilisation at orchard level. Therefore, a nitrogen stress experiment with one-year-old olive trees (Olea europaea L. ‘Koroneiki’ and ‘Meski’) was conducted with trees respectively subjected to four nitrogen supply regimes (23.96 meq l−1, 9.58 meq l−1, 4.79 meq l−1 and 0 meq l−1 NO3 −1).
The current paper focuses on the use of the SPAD-502 portable chlorophyll (Chl) meter, a nondestructive method for fertilisation management under nitrogen stress conditions of olive trees. Maximum net photosynthetic assimilation rates, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and the SPAD Chl index were therefore measured simultaneously and the Chl and nitrogen content of the leaves were analysed. Significant correlations were established in the olive tree leaves between SPAD-502 readings on the one hand and Chl content, nitrogen content, photosynthetic assimilation rate, and Chl fluorescence parameters (ΦPSII and ETR) on the other hand.
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Abbreviations
- Chl:
-
chlorophyll
- Ft :
-
steady-state fluorescence in the light-adapted leaves
- Fm′:
-
maximum fluorescence in the light
- ETR:
-
total electron flow
- N:
-
nitrogen
- P N :
-
maximum net photosynthetic assimilation rate
- ΦPSII :
-
quantum yield of PSII electron transport
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Acknowledgements
The authors also wish to thank the Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (VLIR) for funding the doctoral research of the first author and the Research Foundation — Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) for the Postdoctoral Fellow funding granted to the second author.
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Boussadia, O., Steppe, K., Zgallai, H. et al. Nondestructive determination of nitrogen and chlorophyll content in olive tree leaves and the relation with photosynthesis and fluorescence parameters. Photosynthetica 49, 149–153 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-011-0019-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-011-0019-x