English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of water deficit on growth and physiological parameters of Ficus benjamina and Conocarpus erectus. The results revealed that all growth parameters such as plant height, stem diameter, no. of leaves, no. of branches and chlorophyll contents significantly decreased under water deficit condition. Interestingly, although leaf, stem and total biomass production and allocation decreased significantly under water deficit, but root biomass production and allocation increased significantly. Similarly, stomatal conductance to water vapor decreased significantly and CO2 assimilation rate remained similar to control under water deficit condition. Resultantly, a significant increase in water use efficiency was evident in both species under water deficit condition. These results suggested that, in spite of a significant decrease in biomass production, young Conocarpus erectus and Ficus benjamina can tolerate water deficit which is due to sustained CO2 assimilation rate and increase in root biomass. Introduction The debate on climate change has evolved on to assess, mitigate and adapt to its impacts. This acceptance is based on evidence presented by the scientific community through intensive monitoring of changes in terrestrial systems and predictive modeling (IPCC 2013). Climate change does not merely imply increased average global temperature; other effects include lower frequency of heavy precipitation events and higher frequency of longer drought spells. Resultant scenario favors loss of biodiversity, redistribution and shrinkage of species ecological zones and decrease in productivity (Babst et al. 2013). In the last decade, regions around the globe have faced the negative impact of drought where United Nations Organization (UNO) reported that 2.18 billion hectors of lands were affected by water deficit in the world (Stuart et al. 2011). Globally, forest research has made immense progress in determining how drought affects species growth and productivity. Drought is one of the major abiotic factors to reduce the morphological, physiological and growth performances of plant (Lahlou and Ledent 2005). Morphological adaptation in different plant parts such as leaves, stems and roots are the potential indicators to assess the tolerance and adaption capacity of a species under water stress condition (Rasheed et al. 2015, Rasheed and Delagrange 2016). Drought reduces stomatal conductance and ultimately photosynthesis activities of a plant (Peguero-Pina et al. 2009). Therefore, it is crucial to make additional research on species in order to evaluate their adaptability under water stress to improve biomass production and ensure sustainable forestry. Pakistan has mostly arid and semiarid climates and about 7.8 million ha of land is facing drought stress, which has become a serious *Author for correspondence: <z.zafarfrw@gmail.com, fahad.rasheed@uaf.edu.pk>.Cholistan Institute of Desert Studies, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan. School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland, Pakistan.

Effects of water deficit on growth and physiology of young Conocarpus erectus L. and Ficus benjamina L. Saplings