Abstract
The effects of long-term (33 months) sun/shade acclimation and short-term (within 10 h) HSO3 − treatment on leaf photosynthetic apparatus were investigated in three subtropical forest plants, Pinus massoniana, Schima superba, and Acmena acuminatissima. After 33 months’ growth in two light environments (100 and 12% sunlight), rapid light curves (RLC), chlorophyll fluorescence imaging and chloroplast ultrastructures of three tested species were changed to different degrees. When leaf sections were immersed in 50 mM NaHSO3 for 10 h, all the RLCs were lowered; chlorophyll fluorescence imaging was inclined to present warmer colors and imaging areas were decreased. However, changes in chloroplast ultrastructures differed from three species. Our results showed that the photosynthetic apparatus of a dominant species, A. acuminatissima, in the late succession stage of a subtropical forest in South China, was less sensitive to NaHSO3 under both growing light intensities. Conversely, the chloroplasts of P. massoniana, the pioneer heliophyte species, were most susceptible to NaHSO3. It is deduced that, SO2 pollution may become as a factor to accelerate the succession of subtropical forest.
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Acknowledgments
This research is financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (30770173, 30870385), The State Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (973 Program; 2009CB118504) and International Foundation for Science (D/4539-1). The authors are grateful to Ms Xinlan Xu for her helps on chloroplast ultrastructure observation.
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Liu, N., Lin, ZF., Guan, LL. et al. Light acclimation and HSO3 − damage on photosynthetic apparatus of three subtropical forest species. Ecotoxicology 18, 929–938 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-009-0356-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-009-0356-8