Long-term acclimation of mesophyll conductance, carbon isotope discrimination and growth in two contrasting Picea asperata populations exposed to drought and enhanced UV-B radiation for three years

Two Picea asperata Mast. populations originating from wet and dry climate regions of China were subjected to enhanced UV-B radiation, drought and their combination in a greenhouse for 3 years. Drought treatment caused a significant decrease in photosynthesis, mesophyll conductance (g_m), carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) and growth characteristics when compared with well-watered treatment. In contrast to the great effects of drought stress, enhanced UV-B radiation showed some but not as substantial negative effects on these parameters. Little interaction effect between drought and UV-B radiation was detected, and the drought effect in combination with enhanced UV-B was not more pronounced than with no enhanced UV-B radiation. These results suggest that enhanced UV-B radiation does not aggravate the drought effect on P. asperata seedlings. The results also showed that the proportional role of the intercellular CO₂ (C_i) decreased, while the role of chloroplastic concentration (C_c) became increasingly important in explaining the high values of carbon isotope composition (δ¹³C), when the water stress progressed in time. In addition, multivariate causal models proposed that there is a direct causal relationship between specific leaf area (SLA) and g_m, which is not mediated by leaf N. Besides, there are functional links between g_m and photosynthetic capacity (V_cmax). On the other hand, the study showed that net assimilation rate (NAR) is the main driving force for changes in relative growth rate (RGR), especially in low-water environments, and the degree of acclimation of respiration in the light (R_L) is of central importance to the greater role played by NAR in determining variation in RGR.