Short-term responses to salinity of an invasive cordgrass |
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Authors: | Jesús M. Castillo Alfredo E. Rubio-Casal Susana Redondo Antonio A. Álvarez-López Teresa Luque Carlos Luque Francisco J. Nieva Eloy M. Castellanos Manuel E. Figueroa |
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Affiliation: | (1) Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Sevilla, Apartado, 1095, Spain;(2) Departamento de Ciencias Agroforestales, Universidad de Huelva, Spain;(3) Departamento de Ciencias Agroforestales, Universidad de Huelva, Spain |
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Abstract: | Salinity is one of the main chemical factors in salt marshes. Studies focused on the analysis of salinity tolerance of salt marsh plants are very important, since they may help to relate their physiological tolerances with distribution limits in the field. Spartina densiflora is a South America cordgrass, which has started its invasion of the European coastline from the southwestern Iberian Peninsula. In this work, short-term responses in adult tussocks of S. densiflora from southwestern Spain are studied over a wide range of salinity in a greenhouse experiment. Our results point out that S. densiflora has a high tolerance to salinity, showing high growth and net photosynthesis rates from 0.5 to 20 ppt. S. densiflora showed at the lowest salinity (0.5 ppt) high levels of photoinhibition, compensated by higher levels of energy transmission between photosystems. Adaptative mechanisms, as those described previously, would allow it to live in fresh water environments. At the highest salinity (40 ppt), S. densiflora showed a high stress level, reflected in significant decreases in growth, net photosynthesis rate and photochemical efficiency of Photosystem II. These responses support S. densiflora invasion patterns in European estuaries, with low expansion rates along the coastline and faster colonization of brackish marshes and river banks. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | chlorophyll fluorescence gas exchange Gulf of Cádiz leaf expansion salt marsh South American neophyte Spartina densiflora water potential |
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