In the terrestrial bromeliad, Puya floccosa, a value of carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) of -22‰ has been previously reported, suggesting the operation of weak and/or intermediate (C3-CAM) crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). In order to characterize the operation of CAM in P. floccosa and its possible induction by drought, plants were grown in Caracas and subjected to four independent drought cycles. Additionally, since plants of this species grow in Venezuela in a large range of elevations, leaf samples were collected at elevations ranging from 725 to 2,100 m a.s.l. in the Venezuelan Andes and the Coastal Range, in order to evaluate the effect of elevation on CAM performance. Even though nocturnal acid accumulation occurred in both watered and droughted plants, mean ΔH+ was higher in droughted than watered plants [ΔH+ = 60.17.5 and 22.9 ± 5.2 μmol g-1(FM), respectively]. The majority of plants from all the natural populations sampled had low values of δ13C not differing significantly from those of C3 plants collected as standards and δ13C did not change with elevation. We conclude that P. floccosa is capable of a weak CAM activity, with a large variability among populations and drought experiments probably due to local and temporal differences in microclimatic variables and drought stress; elevation bears no influence on values of δ13C in this species. and A. Herrera ... [et al.].
The effects of varying leaf temperature (T1) on some ecophysiological characteristics of photosynthesis for Quercus liaotungensis Koiz. under ambient radiation stress around midday on clear summer days were investigated using an IRGA equipped with a temperature-controlled cuvette. Net photosynthetic rate (PN) decreased as T1 increased from 30 to 35 °C as a result of stomatal closure, whereas non-stomatal limitation led to decreased PN in the T1 range of 35-45 °C. Decreased transpiration rate (E) and stomatal conductance (gs) at leaf temperatures above 30 °C were interpreted as a combined 'feedward' effect as a result of enhanced leaf-air vapour pressure deficit (VPD) and stomatal closure. Changes in E from T1 30 to 20 °C depended on VPD when gs was maintained constant. Water use efficiency (WUE) varied inversely with T1 by following a hyperbola. A decrease in intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) occurred as a result of stomatal closure and a relatively high carboxylation capacity, whereas inactivation of mesophyll carboxylation in combination with photorespiration might be associated with the observed increase in Ci in the T1 range of 40 to 45 °C. and Shouren Zhang ... [et al.].
The notion of a metric bead space was introduced in the preceding paper (L. Pasicki: Bead spaces and fixed point theorems, Topology Appl., vol. 156 (2009), 1811–1816) and it was proved there that every bounded set in such a space (provided the space is complete) has a unique central point. The bead spaces themselves can be considered in particular as natural extensions of convex sets in uniformly convex spaces. It appears that normed bead spaces are identical with uniformly convex spaces. On the other hand the "metric" approach leads to new elementary conditions equivalent to the uniform convexity. The initial part of the paper contains the proof that discus spaces (they seem to have a richer structure) are identical with bead spaces.