Norway spruce needle size and cross section shape variability induced by irradiance on a macro- and microscale and CO2 concentration

Kubínová, Zuzana; Janáček, Jiřı́; Lhotáková, Zuzana; Šprtová, M.; Kubínová, Lucie; Albrechtová, Jana

doi:10.1007/s00468-017-1626-3

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Leaf laminae in the shaded understory were flatter and therefore more horizontally displayed, whereas laminae in the clearing were more upright to decrease excessive irradiance and maximize leaf area per unit ground (Figure 5b). Similar changes in leaf three-dimensional structures (i.e., flatter in the shade) to maximize light capture in low light environments have been reported for a different species of a forest herb [55], for other within-canopy variation of lamina morphology for broadleaved trees [36,67,68], and for the three-dimensional arrangement of conifer needles [90][91][92]. This result is consistent with several previous findings that the leaves in well-lit places are more vertically upright, while leaves in shaded places are more horizontally displayed to maximize light capture [36,[45][46][47]60].…”

Section: Morphological Acclimationsupporting

confidence: 63%

Photosynthetic and Morphological Acclimation to High and Low Light Environments in Petasites japonicus subsp. giganteus

Deguchi

Koyama

2020

Forests

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Within each species, leaf traits such as light-saturated photosynthetic rate or dark respiration rate acclimate to local light environment. Comparing only static physiological traits, however, may not be sufficient to evaluate the effects of such acclimation in the shade because the light environment changes diurnally. We investigated leaf photosynthetic and morphological acclimation for a perennial herb, butterbur (Petasites japonicus (Siebold et Zucc.) Maxim. subsp. giganteus (G.Nicholson) Kitam.) (Asteraceae), in both a well-lit clearing and a shaded understory of a temperate forest. Diurnal changes in light intensity incident on the leaves were also measured on a sunny day and an overcast day. Leaves in the clearing were more folded and upright, whereas leaves in the understory were flatter. Leaf mass per area (LMA) was approximately twofold higher in the clearing than in the understory, while light-saturated photosynthetic rate and dark respiration rate per unit mass of leaf were similar between the sites. Consequently, both light-saturated photosynthetic rate and dark respiration rate per unit area of leaf were approximately twofold higher in the clearing than in the understory, consistent with previous studies on different species. Using this experimental dataset, we performed a simulation in which sun and shade leaves were hypothetically exchanged to investigate whether such plasticity increased carbon gain at each local environment. As expected, in the clearing, the locally acclimated sun leaves gained more carbon than the hypothetically transferred shade leaves. By contrast, in the understory, the daily net carbon gain was similar between the simulated sun and shade leaves on the sunny day due to the frequent sunflecks. Lower LMA and lower photosynthetic capacity in the understory reduced leaf construction cost per area rather than maximizing net daily carbon gain. These results indicate that information on static photosynthetic parameters may not be sufficient to evaluate shade acclimation in forest understories.

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Section: Morphological Acclimationsupporting

confidence: 63%

Photosynthetic and Morphological Acclimation to High and Low Light Environments in Petasites japonicus subsp. giganteus

Deguchi

Koyama

2020

Forests

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“…The most likely the environmental factor responsible for these effects is solar irradiance, which is known to have profound effects on physiological processes in plants through both heat and visible light (Larcher, ; Taiz & Zeiger, ). Phenotypic plasticity of plant organ shape in response to differences in irradiance has been demonstrated even within shoots (Kubínová et al ., ), and experiments have shown that floral organs can show plasticity in response to intensity and spectral composition of light (Weinig, ; Brock & Weinig, ; Kurepin et al ., ). Nevertheless, we acknowledge that other directed factors, such as geomagnetism (Maffei, ), cannot be ruled out on the basis of our data, but they are much less plausible as mechanisms that might account for the observed shape differences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental heterogeneity contributes to fluctuating asymmetry in plants: first empirical evidence

Tucić

Budečević

Jovanović

et al. 2017

J of Evolutionary Biology

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Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is widely used to quantify developmental instability (DI) in ecological and evolutionary studies. It has long been recognized that FA may not exclusively originate from DI for sessile organisms such as plants, because phenotypic plasticity in response to heterogeneities in the environment might also produce FA. This study provides the first empirical evidence for this hypothesis. We reasoned that solar irradiance, which is greater on the southern side than on the northern side of plants growing in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, would cause systematic morphological differences and asymmetry associated with the orientation of plant parts. We used geometric morphometrics to characterize the size and shape of flower parts in Iris pumila grown in a common garden. The size of floral organs was not significantly affected by orientation. Shape and particularly its asymmetric component differed significantly according to orientation for three different floral parts. Orientation accounted for 10.4% of the total shape asymmetry within flowers in the falls, for 11.4% in the standards and for 2.2% in the style branches. This indicates that phenotypic plasticity in response to a directed environmental factor, most likely solar irradiance, contributes to FA of flowers under natural conditions. That FA partly results from phenotypic plasticity and not just from DI needs to be considered by studies of FA in plants and other sessile organisms.

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“…Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) displays steep vertical gradients within Norway spruce crowns (Kučera et al 2002), and this favors the differentiation of typical sun and shade adapted needles (Spunda et al 1998). Relative to shade adapted needles, sun needles are generally shorter (Kubínová et al 2018) and have higher density (Niinemets & Kull 1995), more tracheids (Gebauer et al 2015), larger xylem area (Gebauer et al 2015), higher leaf mass per area (Niinemets & Kull 1995), greater surface area of mesophyll (Lhotáková et al 2012) and rounder crosssections (Kubínová et al 2018). Under natural conditions drought episodes often increase light availability inside the canopy, because drought-stressed trees often shed some foliage or whole branches die off.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of mild drought on the morphology of sun and shade needles in 20-year-old Norway spruce trees

Gebauer¹,

Volařík²,

Urban³

et al. 2019

iForest

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Biogeosciences and Forestry Biogeosciences and Forestry Effects of mild drought on the morphology of sun and shade needles in 20-year-old Norway spruce trees Roman Gebauer (1) , Daniel Volařík (1) , Josef Urban (1-2) , Isabella Børja (3) , Nina Elisabeth Nagy (3) , Toril Drabløs Eldhuset (3) , Paal Krokene (3) Several studies have looked at how individual environmental factors influence needle morphology in conifer trees, but interacting effects between drought and canopy position have received little attention. In this study, we characterized morphological responses to experimentally induced drought stress in sun exposed and shaded current-year Norway spruce needles. In the drought plot trees were suffering mild drought stress, with an average soil water potential at 50 cm depth of-0.4 MPa. In general, morphological needle traits had greater values in sun needles in the upper canopy than in shaded needles in the lower canopy. Needle morphology 15 months after the onset of drought was determined by canopy position, as only sun needle morphology was affected by drought. Thus, canopy position was a stronger morphogenic factor determining needle structure than was water availability. The largest influence of mild drought was observed for needle length, projected needle area and total needle area, which all were reduced by ~27% relative to control trees. Needle thickness and needle width showed contrasting sensitivity to drought, as drought only affected needle thickness (10% reduction). Needle dry mass, leaf mass per area and needle density were not affected 15 months after the onset of mild drought. Our results highlight the importance of considering canopy position as well as water availability when comparing needle structure or function between conifer species. More knowledge about how different canopy parts of Norway spruce adapt to drought is important to understand forest productivity under changing environmental conditions.

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Norway spruce needle size and cross section shape variability induced by irradiance on a macro- and microscale and CO2 concentration

Cited by 14 publications

References 47 publications

Photosynthetic and Morphological Acclimation to High and Low Light Environments in Petasites japonicus subsp. giganteus

Photosynthetic and Morphological Acclimation to High and Low Light Environments in Petasites japonicus subsp. giganteus

Phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental heterogeneity contributes to fluctuating asymmetry in plants: first empirical evidence

Effects of mild drought on the morphology of sun and shade needles in 20-year-old Norway spruce trees

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