Interspecific competition between fat hen (Chenopodium album L.) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. NSH-33 hybrid) in pure and mixed stands of identical plant density (35 x 35 cm spacing) was studied in smáli plot field experiments under drought stress. Decrease in net photosynthetic rate (E^) due to interspecific competition was not statistically significant in either species in the first part of the growing season. During drought stress, however, significantly decreased in sunflower, while it hardly changed in C. album in the same (interspecific) competition situation. In pure stands, transpiration rate (E) was lower in C. album than in sunflower and this difference was more pronoímced in mixed stands. Consequently, C. album showed a very high water use efficiency (WUE) especially in the shade layer, which accounts for a larger part of the canopy in this species. By contrast, WUE in sunflower decreased, especially in the sun layer of the mixed stand. Interspecific competition reduced the total biomass more severely in sunflower than in C. album by the end of the growing season. The reduction was especially remarkable in the biomass of the reproductive organs. Reproductive effort expressed as reproductive allocation was higher in C. album than in sunflower. Hence the reproductive effort in sunflower and C. album in both intra- and interspecific competition seemed to be correlated with WUE, which is a prime characteristic of drought stress tolerance.
Net CO2 assimilation rate (PN), stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (E), and water use efficiency (WUE) in four perennial C3 species (grasses: Dactylis glomerata, Festuca rupicola, dicots: Filipendula vulgaris, Salvia nemorosa) grown for 231 d in open-top chambers at ambient (CA, 350 µmol mol-1) or elevated (CE, 700 µmol mol-1) CO2 concentrations were compared. When measured at CE, PN was significantly higher in CE plants of all four species than in the CA ones. The increase in PN was less prominent in the two grasses than in the two dicots. The E was significantly higher in the CE-grass F. rupicola and CE-dicot F. vulgaris than in the CA plants. There was no change in E owing to CE in the other grass and dicot. The gs in F. vulgaris and F. rupicola increased, while there was a decrease in D. glomerata and no change in S. nemorosa. WUE increased in all species grown in CE: four- to five-fold in the dicots and less than two-fold in the grasses. The increase in WUE was primarily due to an increase in PN and not to a decrease in E. and K. Szente, Z. Nagy, Z. Tuba.
Winter wheat plants were grown in open top chambers either at 365 µmol mol-1 (AC) or at 700 µmol mol-1 (EC) air CO2 concentrations. The photosynthetic response of flag leaves at the beginning of flowering and on four vertical leaf levels at the beginning of grain filling were measured. Net photosynthetic rates (PN) were higher at both developmental phases in plants grown at EC coupled with larger leaf area and photosynthetic pigment contents. The widely accepted Farquhar net photosynthesis model was parameterised and tested using several observed data. After parameterisation the test results corresponded satisfactorily with observed values under several environmental conditions. and N. Harnos, Z. Tuba, K. Szente.
Tolerance of Festuca rupicola Heuff., Botriochloa ischaemum (L.) Keng., and Salvia nemorosa L. to co-occurring drought, high air temperature and high irradiance were investigated in stands representing different degree of degradation. Air and leaf temperatures were higher for the stands in the advanced degradation stage. The net photosynthetic rate was not significantly lower and WUE was depressed in the degraded stands as compared to the intact stands. Carbon fixation type seems to have outstanding importance in the outcome of degradation processes in semiarid temperate grasslands.
We studied the effects of 15-months of elevated (700 µmol mol-1) CO2 concentration (EC) on the CO2 assimilation rate, saccharide content, and the activity of key enzymes in the regulation of saccharide metabolism (glycolysis and gluconeogenesis) of four C3 perennial temperate grassland species, the dicots Filipendula vulgaris and Salvia nemorosa and the monocots Festuca rupicola and Dactylis glomerata. The acclimation of photosynthesis to EC was downward in F. rupicola and D. glomerata whereas it was upward in F. vulgaris and S. nemorosa. At EC, F. rupicola and F. vulgaris leaves accumulated starch while soluble sugar contents were higher in F. vulgaris and D. glomerata. EC decreased pyrophosphate-D-fructose-6-phosphate l-phosphotransferase (PFP, EC 2.7.1.90) activity assayed with Fru-2,6-P2 in F. vulgaris and D. glomerata and increased it in F. rupicola and S. nemorosa. Growth in EC decreased phosphofructokinase (PFK, EC 2.7.1.11) activity in all four species, the decrease being smallest in S. nemorosa and greatest in F. rupicola. With Fru-2,6-P2 in the assay medium, EC increased the PFP/PFK ratio, except in F. vulgaris. Cytosolic fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (Fru-1,6-P2ase, EC 3.1.3.11) was inhibited by EC, the effect being greatest in F. vulgaris and smallest in F. rupicola. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH EC 1.1.1.49) activity was decreased by growth EC in the four species. Activity ratios of Fru-1,6-P2ase to PFP and PFK suggest that EC may shift sugar metabolism towards glycolysis in the dicots. and E. Nádas ... [et al.].