Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Davide L. Patono, Leandro Eloi Alcatrao, Emilio Dicembrini, Giorgio Ivaldi, Davide Ricauda Aimonino, Claudio Lovisolo
Summary: To measure gas exchange at the whole plant level, researchers designed prototypes of gas-exchange systems and tested them for shoot and rootzone analyses in plants of different sizes. They optimized the choice of cuvette material to ensure isolation between shoot and rootzone compartments and accurately measured the airflow.
Article
Plant Sciences
Nikolaos Konstantis, Konstantinos Koskorellos, Areti Balou, Athina Paravolidaki, George Garantziotis, Christina Eleni Koulopoulou, Athanasios Koulopoulos, George Zervoudakis
Summary: This study measured physiological parameters of wounded plants at different developmental stages and found that the plants' response to leaf wounding varied depending on the developmental stage. Basil plants at the vegetative stage were found to be more tolerant to leaf wounding compared to those at the budding and flowering stages.
Article
Plant Sciences
Sylvain Pincebourde, Jerome Ngao
Summary: Research shows that leaf age affects leaf gas exchange, with herbivore insects altering these effects. Young leaves maintain steady gas exchange rates after infestation, but as they age, infested leaves show increased photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and transpiration rates, gradually decreasing thereafter.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Jiahuan Liu, Jing Zhang, Gonzalo M. Estavillo, Tao Luo, Liyong Hu
Summary: This study used eight genotypes of canola with varying leaf nitrogen content to investigate the effects of leaf nitrogen content on non-steady-state photosynthesis under dynamic light conditions. Significant differences in physiological characteristics and photosynthetic traits were observed among genotypes, with higher leaf nitrogen content genotypes showing a faster induction of photosynthesis to fluctuating light conditions.
PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Gen Sakurai, Stanley J. Miklavcic
Summary: In this study, we used a detailed whole leaf hydraulic model to investigate the local operation of three stomatal conductance models distributed on a whole leaf scale. By examining the leaf-area distributions of photosynthesis, transpiration, stomatal conductance, and guard cell turgor pressure, we quantified the behavior of these models and their responses to changes in environmental conditions. Our findings reveal that a stomatal conductance model which includes mechanical processes dependent on local variables predicts a spatial variation of physiological activity across the leaf, indicating that the leaf functions of photosynthesis and transpiration are not uniformly operative even under uniform external conditions. Our simulation experiments comparing two versions of a mechanical stomatal conductance model suggest that leaves exhibit a more complex spatial distribution pattern of both photosynthesis and transpiration rate and more complex dependencies on environmental conditions when a non-linear relationship between the stomatal aperture and guard cell and epidermal cell turgor pressures is implemented.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Thuy Huu Nguyen, Matthias Langensiepen, Thomas Gaiser, Heidi Webber, Hella Ahrends, Hubert Hueging, Frank Ewert
Summary: Drought has a significant impact on crop growth, and understanding the short-term and long-term responses of crops to drought is crucial. Field data analysis showed that different water supply treatments strongly influenced leaf and canopy gas exchange, as well as cumulative growth in winter wheat and maize. The long-term morphological responses of winter wheat played a larger role in regulating transpiration and assimilation rates, while maize exhibited physiological advantages and morphological adjustments under drought conditions. Improved modeling of gas exchange and crop growth should consider dynamic changes in leaf area and stomatal regulation.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Wei Xue, Hong Luo, Marc Carriqui, Miquel Nadal, Jian-feng Huang, Jiao-lin Zhang
Summary: This study investigates the quantification of mesophyll conductance (gm) in the photosynthesis model and its impact on plant gas exchange estimations. It introduces a peaked Arrhenius function to depict the temperature response of gm and evaluates four different gm estimation methods in 19 C3 species. The results show that explicitly considering gm in the model can improve the modeling accuracy, and not considering the suboptimal stage of gm temperature response can lead to significant overestimations in photosynthesis. The explicit expression of gm has equally important effects on photosynthesis and transpiration estimations.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Songmei Shi, Xiao Xu, Xingshui Dong, Chenyang Xu, Yuling Qiu, Xinhua He
Summary: This study investigated the effects of anticipated future elevated CO2 on growth, physiology, and nutrient uptake in two widely cultivated mulberry varieties in southwest China. The results showed that elevated CO2 significantly increased plant growth but decreased chlorophyll concentrations and photosynthetic rates, while also leading to lower leaf N and P concentrations. Nutrient dilution and changes in plant demand were identified as key factors driving the reduction of leaf N and P under elevated CO2 conditions.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Jun Mao, Yu Luo, Chuan Jin, Minze Xu, Xinhao Li, Yun Tian
Summary: This study investigated the environmental regulatory mechanism of leaf photosynthesis and transpiration in the desert shrub Artemisia ordosica. The results showed that stomatal conductance (g(s)) positively correlated with both photosynthetic rate (P-n) and transpiration rate (E). P-n and E exhibited different correlations with g(s) in different months. Air temperature and light were found to mainly affect the maximum photosynthetic rate (Pn-max) and carboxylation rates. This study provides insights into the responses of desert shrub ecosystems to climate change.
Article
Agronomy
Mariusz Szmagara, Marek Kopacki, Barbara Skwarylo-Bednarz, Agnieszka Jamiolkowska, Barbara Marcinek, Krystyna Rysiak, Agnieszka Szmagara
Summary: Recently, there has been an increase in society's ecological awareness and the need for environmentally friendly techniques to purify soil, water, sewage sludge, and air using living organisms, particularly higher plants. Canna, a plant species, has been investigated for phytoremediation. The study examined ten varieties of canna grown on degraded and garden soil, determining disease index, fungi species composition, growth dynamics, photosynthesis, and gas exchange parameters. The research showed that canna can satisfactorily grow in seemingly unfavorable soil conditions, with Fusarium, Alternaria alternata, Thanatephorus cucumeris, and Botrytis cinerea being the dominant fungi species obtained from its organs. The cultivars 'Picasso', 'Cherry Red', 'President', and 'La Boheme' had lower rates of photosynthesis and gas exchange compared to the 'Botanica', 'Wyoming', 'Robert Kemp', and 'Lucifer' cultivars, making them more suitable for cultivation on strongly degenerated soils.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Miao Ye, Zhengcan Zhang, Guanjun Huang, Yong Li
Summary: This study investigated the effects of leaf anatomical traits and environmental stimuli on the photosynthesis of rice plants. It found that the response of mesophyll conductance to temperature was stronger at the mid-tillering stage and with high nitrogen treatment, which could be attributed to a higher activation energy of the membrane.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Wenguang Sun, David Fleisher, Dennis Timlin, Sanai Li, Zhuangji Wang, Vangimalla Reddy
Summary: GLYCIM, a soybean crop simulator, was enhanced by replacing the original photosynthesis equation with a leaf-level energy balance model to better simulate responses to climate change. The modified version showed improved agreement with observed canopy photosynthetic and transpiration rates, while accurately simulating carbon partitioning to different plant parts. Further evaluation with field data will be useful for studying adaptation responses under projected warmer, CO2-enriched climate conditions.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Xia Chen, Ping Zhao, Xiuhua Zhao, Qian Wang, Lei Ouyang, Markku Larjavaara, Liwei Zhu, Guangyan Ni
Summary: The study found that stem corticular photosynthesis plays a compensatory role in maintaining whole-plant hydraulic conductance integrity and water transport under drought stress, positively impacting the growth of E. urophylla trees and seedlings. The shading effects on leaf gas exchange vary with drought intensity, with severe drought stress causing a significant decline in stomatal conductance and leaf maximum net photosynthesis for E. urophylla seedlings.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Onofrio Davide Palmitessa, Aina E. Prinzenberg, Elias Kaiser, Ep Heuvelink
Summary: Using LED instead of HPS lamps in greenhouses for growing young tomato plants can lead to higher photosynthetic capacity, stomatal density, and transpiration rate, potentially due to the different light spectrum provided by LED. Thermal imaging can be used to assess plant transpiration status, with plants grown under LED generally showing increased photosynthetic gas exchange levels. The differences between LED and HPS were less pronounced in experiments where the fraction of lamp light over natural light was smaller.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Monika Rawat, Kusum Arunachalam, Ayyandar Arunachalam, Juha M. Alatalo, Rajiv Pandey
Summary: The study revealed significant differences in leaf functional traits among coniferous, deciduous, and evergreen tree species, with deciduous species showing the highest values, followed by evergreen and coniferous species. Leaf carbon content and C/N ratio exhibited an opposite pattern, while chlorophyll and photosynthetic rate were highest in evergreen species.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Jordi Martinez-Vilalta, Louis S. Santiago, Rafael Poyatos, Llorenc Badiella, Miquel de Caceres, Ismael Aranda, Sylvain Delzon, Alberto Vilagrosa, Maurizio Mencuccini
Summary: Research compared alternative methods for estimating minimum water potential, finding biases in current estimates due to sample size and proposing statistically robust methods based on extreme value theory to correct biases and provide more accurate results.
Article
Plant Sciences
Victoria C. Clarke, Annamaria De Rosa, Baxter Massey, Aleu Mani George, John R. Evans, Susanne von Caemmerer, Michael Groszmann
Summary: Increasing mesophyll conductance can improve the efficiency of C-3 photosynthesis, but attempts to enhance it through modified aquaporin activity were unsuccessful.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Scott L. Fedick, Louis S. Santiago
Summary: The Yucatan Peninsula experienced a series of droughts during the Classic Maya period, which may have contributed to the disruption or collapse of Maya polities. While climate change alone cannot explain the political turmoil of the time, strong droughts could have resulted in limited food availability, leading to famine, migration, and societal decline. This study reveals that there was a greater diversity of food sources beyond maize available to the Maya during the drought, allowing for a continuing food supply under most conditions.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Cristina R. G. Sales, Gemma Molero, John R. Evans, Samuel H. Taylor, Ryan Joynson, Robert T. Furbank, Anthony Hall, Elizabete Carmo-Silva
Summary: Research on the potential of photosynthesis to improve crop yields has led to the identification of breeding targets. The enzyme Rubisco, responsible for CO2 fixation, is inefficient and often limits carbon assimilation in wheat. Two bread wheat lines with similar genetic backgrounds but contrasting Rubisco activity were chosen for detailed study. Phenotypic analysis of photosynthetic traits in these lines showed no difference in Rubisco activity between in vivo and in vitro methods. Additionally, there was no correlation between photosynthetic traits measured in field-grown plants using high-throughput phenotyping. These findings highlight the need to consider the complex interplay between traits and the dynamic environment in breeding strategies for wheat yield improvement.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2022)
Review
Ecology
G. Darrel Jenerette, Kurt E. Anderson, Mary L. Cadenasso, Mark Fenn, Janet Franklin, Michael L. Goulden, Loralee Larios, Stephanie Pincetl, Helen M. Regan, Sergio J. Rey, Louis S. Santiago, Alexandra D. Syphard
Summary: Wildland-urban interfaces (WUIs) are areas where highly developed and minimally developed lands are juxtaposed, and they play a significant role in environmental and ecological change and require careful planning and management. Understanding the dynamics and coupling between cities and surrounding wildlands in WUIs is crucial for reducing environmental hazards, preserving ecosystem services, and conserving biodiversity.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Juergen Knauer, Matthias Cuntz, John R. Evans, Ulo Niinemets, Tiina Tosens, Linda-Liisa Veromann-Jurgenson, Christiane Werner, Sonke Zaehle
Summary: Mesophyll conductance (gm) limits photosynthesis in all (C)3 plant functional types (PFTs), with a larger limitation in woody evergreens compared to herbaceous annuals. Anatomical leaf traits have a significant impact on gm variation in all PFTs, except for annual herbs which are more strongly influenced by biochemical factors related to leaf nitrogen and potassium content.
Review
Plant Sciences
Andres Garcia, Oorbessy Gaju, Andrew F. Bowerman, Sally A. Buck, John R. Evans, Robert T. Furbank, Matthew Gilliham, A. Harvey Millar, Barry J. Pogson, Matthew P. Reynolds, Yong-Ling Ruan, Nicolas L. Taylor, Stephen D. Tyerman, Owen K. Atkin
Summary: This review explores the potential to increase crop yield potential by optimizing the efficiency of converting light energy into biomass, respiratory ATP production, and ATP use. By targeting factors such as photoprotective machinery, enzymatic kinetics, and metabolic pathways, it is possible to significantly enhance the yield potential of globally important crops.
Article
Plant Sciences
Alex Wu, Jason Brider, Florian A. Busch, Min Chen, Karine Chenu, Victoria C. Clarke, Brian Collins, Maria Ermakova, John R. Evans, Graham D. Farquhar, Britta Forster, Robert T. Furbank, Michael Groszmann, Miguel A. Hernandez-Prieto, Benedict M. Long, Greg Mclean, Andries Potgieter, G. Dean Price, Robert E. Sharwood, Michael Stower, Erik van Oosterom, Susanne von Caemmerer, Spencer M. Whitney, Graeme L. Hammer
Summary: Photosynthetic manipulation provides new opportunities for enhancing crop yield, but the understanding of its impact on crop growth and yield in different environments is limited. This study used simulations to predict the effects of altering photosynthesis on wheat and sorghum yield and uncovered the complex interactions between photosynthesis and crop dynamics.
PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
David S. Ellsworth, Kristine Y. Crous, Martin G. De Kauwe, Lore T. Verryckt, Daniel Goll, Sonke Zaehle, Keith J. Bloomfield, Philippe Ciais, Lucas A. Cernusak, Tomas F. Domingues, Mirindi Eric Dusenge, Sabrina Garcia, Rossella Guerrieri, F. Yoko Ishida, Ivan A. Janssens, Tanaka Kenzo, Tomoaki Ichie, Belinda E. Medlyn, Patrick Meir, Richard J. Norby, Peter B. Reich, Lucy Rowland, Louis S. Santiago, Yan Sun, Johan Uddling, Anthony P. Walker, K. W. Lasantha K. Weerasinghe, Martine J. van de Weg, Yun-Bing Zhang, Jiao-Lin Zhang, Ian J. Wright
Summary: Phosphorus limitation is common in tropical forests and incorporating phosphorus constraints in terrestrial biosphere models improves predictive power. The authors demonstrate the dependency of photosynthesis on leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and find that phosphorus regulation of photosynthetic capacity is similar across continents. Implementing phosphorus constraints in the ORCHIDEE-CNP model reduces photosynthesis in tropical and subtropical regions by 36%.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Andrew P. Scafaro, Bradley C. Posch, John R. Evans, Graham D. Farquhar, Owen K. Atkin
Summary: Photosynthesis in plants declines at high leaf temperatures, which can be attributed to reduced CO2 conductance, increased loss from photorespiration and respiration, decreased chloroplast electron transport rate (J), and deactivation of Rubisco. However, the factors that best predict this decline are still unclear. This study shows that regardless of species, the decline in photosynthesis can be effectively explained by Rubisco deactivation and declines in J. A model is provided to predict the response of photosynthesis to short-term increases in leaf temperature in the absence of CO2 supply limitations.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Stuart T. Schwab, Kenjiro W. Quides, Camille E. Wendlandt, Jerry Trinh, Matthew Sung, Paola Cardenas, Michael Torres, Louis S. Santiago, Loralee Larios, Joel L. Sachs
Summary: This study investigates how symbiotic relationships mediate plant responses to drought. The results show that root nodule symbiosis can benefit plants by mitigating carbon strain during drought-induced mortality events. This finding is significant for understanding the impact of changing symbiotic relationships on plant mortality under climate change scenarios.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Leonie Schonbeck, Marc Arteaga, Humera Mirza, Mitchell Coleman, Denise Mitchell, Xinyi Huang, Haile Ortiz, Louis S. Santiago
Summary: Plant physiology is important for assessing the health status of plant species, but reference points are needed for meaningful interpretation. This article discusses the best practices for measuring plant physiological status and reference points in conservation biology.
CONSERVATION PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Peter C. C. Ibsen, Louis S. S. Santiago, Sheri A. A. Shiflett, Mark Chandler, G. Darrel Jenerette
Summary: Urbanization leads to the formation of new ecosystems with unique species compositions and environments. The impact of irrigation on functional traits across multiple species in urban ecosystems remains unclear. This study found that urban irrigation influences the plasticity of functional traits in trees, with species adapting to increased carbon-gain trait and greater water loss in irrigated desert-like environments. These findings suggest that irrigated urban environments can alter trait responses and create novel dynamics compared to native ecosystems.
Article
Forestry
Leonie C. Schonbeck, Louis S. Santiago
Article
Forestry
Eleinis Avila-Lovera, Hector Blanco, Olga Movil, Louis S. Santiago, Wilmer Tezara
Summary: Shade tolerance is a common strategy for rainforest understory plants, with many species having green young stems that contribute to the carbon economy. Different tree species can significantly affect the physiological traits and growth variables of cacao cultivars, with C. odorata identified as the best timber species for providing partial shade for cacao cultivars in the Barlovento region in Venezuela. Coordination between hydraulic efficiency and stomatal conductance was observed, but not with leaf-stomatal conductance or photosynthesis measures.
