Induced climate change impairs photosynthetic performance in Echinocactus platyacanthus, an especially protected Mexican cactus species

The responses of desert plants to climate warming have been poorly assessed, perhaps due to the overall expectation that desert vegetation will expand as a consequence of this component of climate change. However, determining what plant species will tolerate the expected increase in temperature is a question that remains unanswered. The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest warm desert of North America, and predictive models of climate change indicate that summer temperatures in this desert will increase by 1–2 °C in the next decade. This study experimentally assessed the performance of an endangered cacti species from the Chihuahuan Desert under simulated warming conditions. Hexagonal open top-chambers (OTCs) were used to simulate the effects of global warming on five-years-old individuals of the specially protected species Echinocactus platyacanthus. Temperature was 1.9 °C higher in open top-chambers than in control plots. In contrast, relative humidity was 3.1% higher in control plots than in open top-chambers. E. platyacanthus showed 100% survival for 14 weeks in both OTC and control plots. However, induced warming negatively affected the photosynthetic performance of this species. Cacti located within OTCs displayed lower maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II (F_v/F_m), effective quantum yield of photosystem II (Φ_PSII), and electron transport rate (ETR) values, but higher non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) values, than cacti from control plots. This is the first study focused on the potential impact of climate warming on survival and photosynthetic performance of young individuals of a succulent species from American deserts. Induced warming negatively affected the photosynthetic performance of young E. platyacanthus, but it also increased non-photochemical quenching, a mechanism for avoiding photoinhibition.