Effects of intraspecific competition on growth and photosynthesis of Atriplex prostrata |
| |
Institution: | 1. Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA;2. Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA |
| |
Abstract: | We investigated the effect of intraspecific competition on growth parameters and photosynthesis of the salt marsh species Atriplex prostrata Boucher in order to distinguish the effects of density-dependent growth inhibition from salt stress. High plant density caused a reduction of 30% in height, 82% in stem dry mass, 80% in leaf dry mass, and 95% in root dry mass. High density also induced a pronounced 72% reduction in leaf area, 29% decrease in length of mature internodes and 50% decline in net photosynthetic rate. The alteration of net photosynthesis paralleled growth inhibition, decreasing from 7.6 ± 0.9 μmol CO2 m?2 s?1 at low density to 3.5 ± 0.4 μmol CO2 m?2 s?1 at high density, indicating growth inhibition caused by intraspecific competition is mainly due to a decline in net photosynthesis rate. Plants grown at high density also exhibited a reduction in stomatal conductance from 0.7 ± 0.1 mol H2O m?2 s?1 at low density to 0.3 ± 0.1 mol H2O m?2 s?1 at high density and a reduction in transpiration rate from 6.0 ± 0.3 mmol H2O m?2 s?1 at low density to 4.3 ± 0.3 mmol H2O m?2 s?1 at high density. Biomass production was inhibited by an increase in plant density, which reduced the rate of photosynthesis, stomatal conductance and leaf area of plants. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|