Interactions of drought and shade effects on seedlings of four Quercus species: physiological and structural leaf responses |
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Authors: | Quero José Luis Villar Rafael Marañón Teodoro Zamora Regino |
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Institution: | Grupo de Ecología Terrestre, Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, E-18071 Granada, Spain. jlquer@ugr.es |
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Abstract: | Here, we investigated the physiological and structural leaf responses of seedlings of two evergreen and two deciduous Quercus species, grown in a glasshouse and subjected to contrasted conditions of light (low, medium and high irradiance) and water (continuous watering vs 2-months drought). The impact of drought on photosynthetic rate was strongest in high irradiance, while the impact of shade on photosynthetic rate was strongest with high water supply, contradicting the hypothesis of allocation trade-off. Multivariate causal models were evaluated using d-sep method. The model that best fitted the dataset proposed that the variation in specific leaf area affects photosynthetic rate and leaf nitrogen concentration, and this trait determines stomatal conductance, which also affects photosynthetic rate. Shade conditions seemed to ameliorate, or at least not aggravate, the drought impact on oak seedlings, therefore, the drought response on leaf performance depended on the light environment. |
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Keywords: | deciduous evergreen leaf traits Mediterranean oaks photosynthesis nitrogen specific leaf area water-use efficiency |
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