Effects of enhanced ultraviolet-B radiation on water use efficiency, stomatal conductance, leaf nitrogen content and morphological characteristics of Spiraea pubescens in a warm-temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest |
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Authors: | Lan Chen Shouren Zhang |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratory of Quantitative Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China;(2) Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China |
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Abstract: | Spiraea pubescens, a common shrub in the warm-temperate deciduous forest zone which is distributed in the Dongling Mountain area of Beijing,
was exposed to ambient and enhanced ultraviolet-B (UV-B, 280–320 nm) radiation by artificially supplying a daily dose of 9.4
kJ/m2 for three growing seasons, a level that simulated a 17% depletion in stratospheric ozone. The objective of this study was
to explore the effects of long-term UV-B enhancement on stomatal conductance, leaf tissue δ
13C, leaf water content, and leaf area. Particular attention was paid to the effects of UV-B radiation on water use efficiency
(WUE) and leaf total nitrogen content. Enhanced UV-B radiation significantly reduced leaf area (50.1%) but increased leaf
total nitrogen content (102%). These changes were associated with a decrease in stomatal conductance (16.1%) and intercellular
CO2 concentration/ air CO2 concentration (C
i
/C
a) (4.0%), and an increase in leaf tissue δ
13C (20.5‰), leaf water content (3.1%), specific leaf weight (SLW) (5.2%) and WUE (4.1%). The effects of UV-B on the plant were
greatly affected by the water content of the deep soil (30–40 cm). During the dry season, differences in the stomatal conductance,
δ
13C, and WUE between the control and UV-B treated shrubs were very small; whereas, differences became much greater when soil
water stress disappeared. Furthermore, the effects of UV-B became much less significant as the treatment period progressed
over the three growing seasons. Correlation analysis showed that enhanced UV-B radiation decreased the strength of the correlation
between soil water content and leaf water content, δ
13C, C
i/C
a, stomatal conductance, with the exception of WUE that had a significant correlation coefficient with soil water content.
These results suggest that WUE would become more sensitive to soil water variation due to UV-B radiation. Based on this experiment,
it was found that enhanced UV-B radiation had much more significant effects on morphological traits and growth of S. pubescens than hydro-physiological characteristics.
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Translated from Journal of Plant Ecology, 2006, 30(1): 47–56 译自: 植物生态学报] |
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Keywords: | warm-temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest Spiraea pubescens UV-B radiation δ 13C water use efficiency nutrition content |
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