Different mechanisms drive the performance of native and invasive woody species in response to leaf phosphorus supply during periods of drought stress and recovery

Different physiological responses under drought stress result in different recovery abilities of two tropical woody evergreen species

“…present a permanent photochemical damage, recovering F v / F m values after rehydration. Furthermore, similar responses were also observed for Moringa oleifera (Rivas et al 2013) and Anadenanthera columbrina (Oliveira et al 2014), both common species in the Brazilian northwest region.…”

“…On the other hand, increases in chlorophylls and carotenoids observed for S. foetida plants subjected to severe water deficit, under maximum stress, could provide a faster recovery of the photosynthetic activity after rehydration. A similar response was observed for young Anadenanthera columbrina and Moringa oleifera plants (Rivas et al 2013;Oliveira et al 2014). Such different responses regarding the dynamic content of leaf photosynthetic pigments may have influenced the performance of the photosynthetic machinery during the recovery period for both species.…”

“…The decrease in photosynthetic pigment concentrations could contribute to avoid severe damages to the photosynthetic machinery, since under low water availability there would be lower CO 2 concentrations inside the chloroplast caused by stomatal closure (Hörtensteiner 2009;Oliveira et al 2014). On the other hand, increases in chlorophylls and carotenoids observed for S. foetida plants subjected to severe water deficit, under maximum stress, could provide a faster recovery of the photosynthetic activity after rehydration.…”

“…In general, under water defi cit, the leaf metabolism of woody tropical species changes, resulting in changes in water potential, gas exchange, chlorophyll fl uorescence, organic solute contents and photosynthetic pigment (Frosi et al 2013;Rivas et al 2013;Oliveira et al 2014). Some species decrease their photosynthetic pigments and accumulate organic solutes without showing a faster recovery of the photosynthetic activity, while other species show the opposite behavior (Souza et al 2010;Rivas et al 2013;Oliveira et al 2014).…”

“…Some species decrease their photosynthetic pigments and accumulate organic solutes without showing a faster recovery of the photosynthetic activity, while other species show the opposite behavior (Souza et al 2010;Rivas et al 2013;Oliveira et al 2014). Th is variation in plant responses, when subjected to water defi cit and rehydration, is relevant especially for evergreen species in semiarid environments due to the seasonality of water availability.…”