Environmental and physiological regulation of transpiration in tropical forest gap species: the influence of boundary layer and hydraulic properties

Environmental and physiological regulation of transpiration were examined in several gap-colonizing shrub and tree species during two consecutive dry seasons in a moist, lowland tropical forest on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Whole plant transpiration, stomatal and total vapor phase (stomatal + boundary layer) conductance, plant water potential and environmental variables were measured concurrently. This allowed control of transpiration (E) to be partitioned quantitatively between stomatal (g _s) and boundary layer (g _b) conductance and permitted the impact of invividual environmental and physiological variables on stomatal behavior and E to be assessed. Wind speed in treefall gap sites was often below the 0.25 m s^–1 stalling speed of the anemometer used and was rarely above 0.5 m s^–1, resulting in uniformly low g _b (c. 200–300 mmol m^–2 s^–1) among all species studied regardless of leaf size. Stomatal conductance was typically equal to or somewhat greater than g _b. This strongly decoupled E from control by stomata, so that in Miconia argentea a 10% change in g _s when g _s was near its mean value was predicted to yield only a 2.5% change in E. Porometric estimates of E, obtained as the product of g _s and the leaf-bulk air vapor pressure difference (VPD) without taking g _b into account, were up to 300% higher than actual E determined from sap flow measurements. Porometry was thus inadequate as a means of assessing the physiological consequences of stomatal behavior in different gap colonizing species. Stomatal responses to humidity strongly limited the increase in E with increasing evaporative demand. Stomata of all species studied appeared to respond to increasing evaporative demand in the same manner when the leaf surface was selected as the reference point for determination of external vapor pressure and when simultaneous variation of light and leaf-air VPD was taken into account. This result suggests that contrasting stomatal responses to similar leaf-bulk air VPD may be governed as much by the external boundary layer as by intrinsic physiological differences among species. Both E and g _s initially increased sharply with increasing leaf area-specific total hydraulic conductance of the soil/root/leaf pathway (G _t), becoming asymptotic at higher values of G _t. For both E and g _s a unique relationship appeared to describe the response of all species to variations in G _t. The relatively weak correlation observed between g _s and midday leaf water potential suggested that stomatal adjustment to variations in water availability coordinated E with water transport efficiency rather than bulk leaf water status.     

Carbon fixation in eucalypts in the field

Summary The rate of CO₂ assimilation at light saturation and an intercellular CO₂ concentration of 350 l l^-1 (photosynthetic capacity), measured in leaves of Eucalyptus pauciflora, E. behriana, E. delegatensis and Acacia melanoxylon, declined over the course of cloudless days under naturally varying environmental conditions as well as under constant optimal conditions for high CO₂ uptake. Since the capacity did not recover during the light period, it was different from the midday depression of gas exchange. The change appeared to be caused neither by the diurnal variation of total leaf water potential, by photoinhibition of redox-reaction centres in photosystems nor by changes in the intrinsic properties of Ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase. The decline was more pronounced in winter than in summer. It was related to the duration of illumination or the cumulative carbon gain. It was reversible in the following dark phase, and it did not occur on changeable days with short peaks of high light.Despite the decline in photosynthetic capacity, the initial slope of the CO₂ response of net photosynthesis, as obtained at low intercellular CO₂ concentrations, remained constant during the day, but declined at night when photosynthetic capacity recovered. In all cases stomatal conductance varied in parallel with photosynthetic capacity. The relevance of changes in photosynthetic capacity for the intercellular CO₂ concentration is discussed.Abbreviations and symbols A CO₂ assimilation - ABA abscisic acid - A_c350 photosynthetic capacity at c_i=350l l^-1 - c_i intercellular CO₂ concentration - g leaf conductance to water vapour - I photon flux density (irradiance) - P air pressure - P_i inorganic phosphate - R_d net CO₂ release at _* - Rubisco Ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase - RuBP Ribulose-bisphosphate - T leaf temperature - w leaf-to-air water vapour concentration difference - A/c_i carboxylation efficiency at low c_i - _* light-independent CO₂ compensation point - total leaf water potential     

海岸带迎风坡环境干扰对造林植物叶片解剖、气孔和水分利用效率的影响

海岸迎风坡植被恢复是海岸带破坏生态系统修复的重要内容。本试验在广东中山市五桂山海岸带迎风坡（海拔300 m）选择了3种用于植被恢复的人工造林植物,红锥（Castanopsis hystrix）、米老排（Mytilaria laosensis）、云南石梓（Gmelina arborea）和2个同地点的野生种降真香（Acronychia pedunculata）与鸭脚木（Schefflera octophylla）作为实验材料,研究4年后3种造林树种对海岸迎风坡环境的适应。测定5种植物叶片的解剖特征、气孔形态、气孔密度（SD）和大小（SL）、光合作用和水分利用效率（WUE）等生理特性。结果表明,（1）5种植物的叶片解剖特征在迎风坡和背风坡都没有明显差异,除红锥外,SD和SL在两坡面也未表现出显著变化;（2）红锥和云南石梓在迎风坡显示出低的WUE,野生种降真香和鸭脚木有潜在的高的WUE,而米老排在迎风坡显示出对迎风坡造林环境有一定的适应能力;（3）5种植物叶片解剖特征和光合行为对潜在的水分胁迫响应的表型可塑性变化存在明显的种间差异。     

Hormone interactions in stomatal function

Research in recent years on the biology of guard cells has shown that these specialized cells integrate both extra- and intra-cellular signals in the control of stomatal apertures. Among the phytohormones, abscisic acid (ABA) is one of the key players regulating stomatal function. In addition, auxin, cytokinin, ethylene, brassinosteroids, jasmonates, and salicylic acid also contribute to stomatal aperture regulation. The interaction of multiple hormones can serve to determine the size of stomatal apertures in a condition-specific manner. Here, we discuss the roles of different phytohormones and the effects of their interactions on guard cell physiology and function.     

Xylem hydraulic physiology: The functional backbone of terrestrial plant productivity

Land plants are completely dependent on a passive system of water transport for their survival. The great bulk of the xylem tissue is non-living and consequently has no short term capacity to acclimate or adjust to changes in hydraulic demand. Yet there exists an extraordinary degree of coordination between the hydraulic and photosynthetic systems of plants that defies developmental explanation. The connection between hydraulic capacity and photosynthetic assimilation arises as a product of the shared stomatal pathway for water and CO₂ exchange in the leaf. A combination of optimization in both water use and structural xylem investment has led to a situation in vascular plants where the form and function of all individuals is moulded by the link between hydraulic and photosynthetic systems. Unlike competing models of hormonal control of gas exchange, hydraulic limitation of productivity under optimal and drought conditions accounts for much of the observed variation in plant gas exchange in natural systems. The plant water transport system places a hard physical limit to plant productivity and survival. Identifying the developmental control of key xylem traits will yield the potential for achieving new performance capabilities in plants.     

矮嵩草草甸主要植物气孔分布及开闭规律与蒸腾强度的关系

本文研究了高寒矮嵩草草甸6种植物叶片气孔的分布、密度和开闭日变化规律与蒸腾强度的关系。结果表明：多数植物上下表皮均有气孔分布,而矮嵩草的气孔集中分布在下表皮,羊茅的气孔集中分布在上表皮。同一植物类群中,叶片气孔密度大者,植物蒸腾强度也相对较高。气孔日变化是在日出后,随气温和大气湿度的变化而变化,在9时和午后3时气孔几乎全部张开,然后逐渐关闭。植物蒸腾强度随气孔开闭而发生变化,矮嵩草的蒸腾强度在11时左右达到峰值;垂穗披碱草和美丽风毛菊是在午后1时达到峰值,植物没有“午睡” 现象。     

Problems and Possibilities in the Teaching of Ecology

The treatment of technical vocabulary largely deter-mines its effectiveness as a medium of communication. The present paper describes how six O-level1 Biology texts were analysed, to discover how they dealt with terminology. Two categories of vocabulary were recognised: the terms peculiar to individual books and those common to all books. Individual vocabu-laries were of different sizes because of divergences in style and the use of various synonyms to express the same idea. (Synonyms also increase vocabulary burden and make it more difficult for a pupil to pass from one book to another.) The common vocabulary was thought to contain the most important terms, and the authors' treatment of them seemed to bear this out: a large majority were both explained and emphasised. Technical vocabulary would be used even more effectively if synonyms were eliminated and all the remaining terms were explained and emphasised at their first appearance.     

国产柿属(Diospyros)的叶表皮形态研究及其分类学意义

为了解柿属(Diospyros)植物的叶表皮特征,在光学显微镜下观察了46种2变种植物的叶表皮微形态特征,并进行了主成分分析。结果表明,柿属植物的叶表皮微形态可分为2组：A组的表皮细胞为不规则形,垂周壁浅波状或深波状;B组的表皮细胞为多边形,垂周壁平直或弓形。气孔全部位于下表皮,以无规则型为主,但同时有辐射型、环列型和十字型气孔存在。大多数种具有表皮毛,表皮毛有非腺毛和头状腺毛的区别。柿属植物的叶表皮微形态特征类型多样,能够为部分类群的分类提供较好的形态学证据。     

The role of the epidermis in the generation of the circadian rhythm of carbon dioxide fixation in leaves of Bryophyllum fedtschenkoi

The role of the epidermis in the generation of the endogenous circadian rhythm of CO₂ exchange in leaves of Bryophyllum fedtschenkoi has been examined. At 25° C the rhythm of CO₂ output exhibited by whole leaves kept in continuous darkness and an initially CO₂-free air stream also occurs in isolated pieces of mesophyll. The sensitivity to light of the rhythms in whole leaves and in isolated mesophyll appears to be identical. At 15° C, however, no rhythm is observed in isolated mesophyll tissue, despite there being a conspicuous rhythm in intact leaves. The rhythm of net CO₂ assimilation in whole leaves kept in continuous light and a stream of normal air at either 25° C or at 15° C is abolished by removal of the epidermis, although at 15° C and under the higher of the two light levels used, there is an indication that rhythmicity may begin to reappear after the third day of the experiment. Thus, only under certain environmental conditions is the rhythm of CO₂ exchange in Bryophyllum leaves independent of the epidermis. The results indicate that the rhythm of carbon dioxide fixation in continuous darkness and CO₂-free air is generated primarily in the mesophyll cells, whereas the rhythm in continuous light and normal air is generated in the stomatal guard cells or in an interaction of these cells with the mesophyll cells.Abbreviation PEPCase phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase