Effect of cold storage treatments and transplanting stress on gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence and survival under water limiting conditions of Pinus radiata stock-types

Abstract

Effect of cold storage treatments and transplanting stress on gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence and survival under water limiting conditions of Pinus radiata stock-types Abstract The capacity of radiata pine seedlings to overcome planting shock in wet and dry conditions and their dependence on previous history was analysed by studying post-planting resumption of gas exchange and photochemical reactions, and survival 2 months later. Even under well-irrigated soil conditions, seedlings showed the effects of stress: gas exchange was reduced, but a clear difference between soil-plugged (PR) seedlings and bare-root (BR) seedlings was observed. Drought enhanced the severity of photosynthesis deprivation. Photochemical reactions, analysed by chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters, were not affected by planting shock in conditions of available soil water, but altered dramatically when drought stress was raised, suggesting structural damage of photosynthetic machinery. Despite the dramatic sensitivity of radiata pine to water availability, rewatering produced remarkable recovery, indicating good photosynthetic components repair capacity, which depended, however, on stock quality at the moment of planting. The ability of radiata pine to cope with drought in terms of postplanting performance depended on both storage conditions and water availability at the planting site. These findings provide information for tree physiologists and foresters as to how the management of radiata pine seedlings before planting can affect post-planting performance potential under wet or dry environmental conditions.

Genetic Variation in Drought-Tolerance Traits and Their Relationships to Growth in Pinus radiata D. Don Under Water Stress

“…We did not observe a significant linear relationship between δ 13 C and Y traits. Although previous studies reported δ 13 C to be negatively associated with Y ( Mena-Petite et al, 2000 , 2005 ; Dias and Brüggemann, 2010 ), Y was a poor predictor of water stress tolerance across the 63 families we tested. The poor predictability of Y in our study could be due to several reasons.…”

“…Unlike other studies, this study maintained the potting medium to a constant 22–25% WHC. The strong relationship between δ 13 C and Y determined by Mena-Petite et al (2005) was obtained from Y measurements collected over a wide range of foliar relative water potential (∼25–85% range) after withholding irrigation over a short-term period. However, a small number of Y values in this study were below 0.70.…”

Influence of water stress on photosynthetic characteristics in barley plants under ambient and elevated CO₂ concentrations

“…Under water stress, the deprivation of CO 2 at the chloroplast level by stomata closure could enhance the sensitivity of the photosynthetic apparatus to photoinhibition (Escalona et al 1999). It has been observed that as drought stress rises, a significant alteration occurs in all fluorescence parameters (Mena-Petite et al 2005). In our experiments, photochemical efficiency was only slightly reduced by water stress and only after 16 d of water deprivation, and this injury was delayed when plants were grown at EC.…”

Water Stress and Afforestation: A Contribution to Ameliorate Forest Seedling Performance During the Establishment

“…As water potential becomes more negative, other physiological symptoms appear like reduced stomatal conductance, photosynthesis, transpiration and growth (Grossnickle, 1988;Guehl et al, 1989;Jacobs et al, 2009;Sands, 1984). These symptoms were observed by Mena-Petite et al (2005) after transplanting seedlings of Pinus radiata both under drought and under well-watered conditions. Reduced leaf area, leaf shedding, shoot growth and needle length area are the principal morphological symptoms (Haase & Rose, 1993;Struve & Joly, 1992).…”