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Characterising the influence of acid rain on the growth and physiological characteristics of Mirabilis jalapa Linn. in southern China

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Abstract

Acid rain has progressively become more problematic due to increasing concentrations of atmospheric pollution, particularly in China. Mirabilis jalapa L. is an important landscaping ground cover plant with significant resistance to multiple stressors, yet its tolerance to acid stress is unknown. In this study, the effects of acid rain on the growth and numerous physiological indexes of M. jalapa at different growth stages such as plant height, leaf growth, chlorophyll content, and chlorophyll fluorescence were investigated under increasingly acidic conditions of pH 5.6 (control), pH 4.0, pH 3.0, and pH 2.0. We found that the plant height, leaf length, and leaf area of M. jalapa varied significantly across our four treatments (P < 0.05). As the simulated acid rain pH decreased, the plant height, leaf length, and leaf area showed the trend of first increasing before decreasing. In the peak at pH 4.0 treatment, the plant height, leaf length, leaf area, and chlorophyll content were significantly higher than that of the control, pH 3.0 and pH 2.0 (P < 0.05). There are significant differences in chlorophyll fluorescence parameters under different treatments (P < 0.05). The actual photochemical efficiency (ΦPSII) and apparent electron transfer rate (ETR) of the leaves of M. jalapa in the control group, pH 4.0 and 3.0 acid rain stress were significantly higher than that under pH 2.0 stress, while the chemical quenching coefficient (qN) was lower. Chlorophyll fluorescence parameters under control and pH 3.0 treatments were different but not significant (P > 0.05), indicating that M. jalapa seedlings under pH 4.0–3.0 acid rain treatments had higher photorespiration ability. Whereas M. jalapa, under severe stress pH 2.0, increased heat dissipation capacity by absorbing the photorespiration ability. We conclude that acidic conditions of pH of 3.0 were the threshold limit, and acid rain below this value could potentially have a detrimental effect on actual photochemical efficiency. M. jalapa had better adaptability under the decreased acidic conditions, rain concentration pH 4.0 to 3.0, which promoted its growth.

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Data availability statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to EditSprings (https://www.editsprings.com/) for the expert linguistic services provided.

Funding

This study was supported by the Young Teachers Scientific Research Grant Project of China West Normal University (22KB004) and Youth Foundation Specialization of China West Normal University (18D049).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Science, China West Normal University, No 1 Shi Da Road, Nanchong, 637000, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China

    Lan-ying Chen, Lin Wang & Xun Zhu

  2. College of Resources and Environment, Tibet Agricultural and Animal Husbacdry University, Tibet, 860000, People’s Republic of China

    Hao-yu Wang

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  1. Lan-ying Chen
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  2. Lin Wang
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Correspondence to Lan-ying Chen.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Communicated by C. L. Cespedes.

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Chen, Ly., Wang, L., Wang, Hy. et al. Characterising the influence of acid rain on the growth and physiological characteristics of Mirabilis jalapa Linn. in southern China. Acta Physiol Plant 45, 5 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-022-03490-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-022-03490-8

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