Responses of two field-grown coffee species to drought and re-hydration

Abstract

The gas exchange, parameters of chlorophyll fluorescence, contents of pigments, and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), as well as lipid peroxidation were investigated in two field-grown coffee species, Coffea arabica and C. liberica, exposed to drought and re-hydration. Drought caused a more pronounced inhibition of net photosynthetic rate in C. liberica compared to C. arabica. The de-epoxidation of xanthophyll cycle pigments at midday estimated by leaf reflectance was much higher in C. arabica than in C. liberica, but no significant change was found in response to drought. Under moderate drought, the activities of SOD and APX increased significantly only in C. arabica. The maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem 2, PS2 (F v /F m ) at predawn did not change and there was no lipid peroxidation during this time. Under severe drought F v /F m decreased and initial fluorescence (F 0 ) increased for both species, and SOD activity increased, APX activity remained relatively high, and malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulated in C. arabica, while APX decreased in C. liberica. The photosynthetic apparatus of C. arabica was completely recovered after 5 d of re-irrigation as indicated by the restoration of F v /F m to the control values. A lack of recovery upon rewatering of C. liberica indicated irreversible damage to PS2. Hence compared to C. liberica, C. arabica possesses a higher desiccation-induced antioxidative protection and higher portion of the total pigment pool used in photoprotection, which might aid alleviating photoinhibitory damage during desiccation and photosynthesis recovery when favourable conditions are restored.

Photosynthetic carbon and nitrogen metabolism and the relationship between their metabolites and lipid peroxidation in dwarf bamboo (Fargesia rufa Yi) during drought and subsequent recovery

“…However, LRWC of dwarf bamboo returned back to the control level after 15 days of rewatering (Fig. 1), which was consistent with previously published studies in other plant species (Cai et al 2005;Miyashita et al 2005;Bian and Jiang 2009). This indicates that dwarf bamboo seems to be capable of withstanding and surviving extreme drought events.…”

“…Drought-induced decline in photosynthetic CO 2 assimilation is extensively considered to be the result of reduced LRWC (Cai et al 2005;, and P max may be considered as a measure of the photosynthetic capacity of the leaf (Murchie et al 2002). Lawlor and Cornic (2002) indicated that the responses of photosynthetic physiology of plants to LRWC can be divided into two types.…”

“…Rewatering might alleviate the adverse effects of drought on plants, which has been documented mainly in herbaceous and woody plants (Cai et al 2005;Xu and Zhou 2007;Upadhyaya et al 2008). There are many indications that the velocity of recovery after relief from drought and the turning point between fast and slow recovery depend on plant species as well as stress intensity and duration (Flexas et al 2006;Robredo et al 2011).…”

Ecophysiology of coffee growth and production

“…The significant correlation between A and g s , as found for arabica coffee, but not for conilon, might be associated with the better coupling of g s with the atmospheric evaporative demand in the former. Sources: Meinzer et al (1990Meinzer et al ( , 1992, DaMatta et al (1997DaMatta et al ( , 2002DaMatta et al ( , 2003DaMatta et al ( , 2008, Carelli et al (1999), Silva et al (2004), Pinheiro et al (2004), Gómez et al (2005), Cai et al (2005Cai et al ( , 2007, Praxedes et al (2006), , Ronquim et al (2006), Dias et al (2007), Chaves et al (2008).…”

Effects of an extended drought period on physiological properties of grassland species in the field

“…Previous studies showed that some grassland species are able to produce deep root systems to increase soil water uptake (Grieu et al 2001), causing a competitive advantage over other species under drought. The capacity of plants to recover from damage caused by severe drought stress is another relevant aspect in terms of competitive growth and survival for various species (Flexas et al 2006), but such investigations were often focused on tree and shrub species (Kirschbaum 1988;Cai et al 2005;Gallé and Feller 2007).…”