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Acclimation of photosynthesis in a boreal grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) under different temperature, CO2, and soil water regimes

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Photosynthetica

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the acclimation of photosynthesis in a boreal grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) grown in controlled environment chambers under elevated temperature (ambient + 3.5°C) and CO2 (700 μmol mol−1) with varying soil water regimes. More specifically, we studied, during two development stages (early: heading; late: florescence completed), how the temperature response of light-saturated net photosynthetic rate (P sat), maximum rate of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activity (V cmax) and potential rate of electron transport (J max) acclimatized to the changed environment. During the early growing period, we found a greater temperature-induced enhancement of P sat at higher measurement temperatures, which disappeared during the late stage. Under elevated growth temperature, V cmax and J max at lower measurement temperatures (5–15°C) were lower than those under ambient growth temperature during the early period. When the measurements were done at 20–30°C, the situation was the opposite. During the late growing period, V cmax and J max under elevated growth temperature were consistently lower across measurement temperatures. CO2 enrichment significantly increased P sat with higher intercellular CO2 compared to ambient CO2 treatment, however, elevated CO2 slightly decreased V cmax and J max across measurement temperatures, probably due to down-regulation acclimation. For two growing periods, soil water availability affected the variation in photosynthesis and biochemical parameters much more than climatic treatment did. Over two growing periods, V cmax and J max were on average 36.4 and 30.6%, respectively, lower with low water availability compared to high water availability across measurement temperatures. During the late growing period, elevated growth temperature further reduced the photosynthesis under low water availability. V cmax and J max declined along with the decrease in nitrogen content of leaves as growing period progressed, regardless of climatic treatment and water regime. We suggest that, for grass species, seasonal acclimation of the photosynthetic parameters under varying environmental conditions needed to be identified to fairly estimate the whole-life photosynthesis.

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Abbreviations

C a :

CO2 concentration

C c :

chloroplast CO2 concentration

C i :

intercellular CO2 concentration

CON:

ambient environment in chamber

EC:

elevated CO2 concentration in chamber

ET:

elevated temperature in chamber

ETC:

chamber with combination of temperature and CO2 elevation

g m :

mesophyll conductance

g sat :

light-saturated stomatal conductance

ΔH a :

enthalpy of activation

ΔH d :

enthalpy of deactivation

J :

rate of electron transport

J max :

maximum rate of electron transport

K c, K o :

Rubisco Michaelis constants for CO2, O2

NL :

nitrogen content based on leaf area

O :

O2 concentration

P c :

Rubiscolimited rate of photosynthesis

P j :

RuBP-regeneration-limited rate of photosynthesis

P N :

net photosynthetic rate

P sat :

light-saturated net photosynthetic rate

PPFD:

photosynthetic photon flux densities

R :

molar gas constant

RCG:

reed canary grass

R d :

mitochondrial respiration in light

ΔS :

entropy of the desaturation equilibrium

T opt :

optimal temperature

V cmax :

maximum rate of carboxylation by Rubisco

α:

quantum efficiency

Γ*:

CO2 compensation point (absence of dark respiration)

θ:

curvature of the light-response curve

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Yliopistokatu 7, P.O. Box 111, 80101, Joensuu, Finland

    Z. -M. Ge, X. Zhou, S. Kellomäki, H. Peltola & K. Y. Wang

  2. Department of Environmental Science, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland

    P. J. Martikainen

Authors
  1. Z. -M. Ge
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  2. X. Zhou
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  3. S. Kellomäki
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  4. H. Peltola
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  5. P. J. Martikainen
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  6. K. Y. Wang
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Correspondence to Z. -M. Ge.

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Acknowledgments: This work was funded through the Finland Distinguished Professor Programme (FiDiPro) of the Academy of Finland (No. 127299-A5060-06) and the Finnish Network Graduate School in Forest Sciences of the Academy of Finland (No. 49996). Thanks are due to Matti Turpeinen of Vapo Ltd. for providing relevant logistical information on the field sites. The controlled environment chamber system was funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) granted by the State Provincial Office of Eastern Finland. Matti Lemettinen, Alpo Hassinen, Risto Ikonen and Eine Ihanus at the Mekrijärvi Research Station, are thanked for their technical assistance. Dr. David Gritten is greatly thanked for revising the language of this paper.

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Ge, Z.M., Zhou, X., Kellomäki, S. et al. Acclimation of photosynthesis in a boreal grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) under different temperature, CO2, and soil water regimes. Photosynthetica 50, 141–151 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-012-0014-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-012-0014-x

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