Premium
Diagnostic parameters for selecting against novel spruce ( Picea abies ) decline: I. Tree morphology and photosynthesis response to acute SO 2 exposures
Author(s) -
Saxe Henrik,
Murali N. S.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
physiologia plantarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.351
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1399-3054
pISSN - 0031-9317
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3054.1989.tb06201.x
Subject(s) - transpiration , picea abies , photosynthesis , botany , horticulture , shoot , biology , stomatal density , growing season
The dose‐ and time‐response effects of single 4‐h day‐exposures to 0.50, 0.79, 1.28, 1.58, 2.38 or 3.35 μl l −1 (ppm) SO 2 followed by single 3‐h night‐exposures of 0.60, 0.87, 1.54, 1.91, 2.91 or 3.98 μl l −1 SO 2 on photosynthesis, transpiration and dark respiration were examined for nine East European (Carpatho‐Ukrainian, ‘Rachovo’) half‐sib families and for two populations, one from the FRG (‘Westerhof’) and one from the GDR (‘Schmiedefeld’) of Norway spruce [ Picea abies (L.) Karst.], all in their 4th growing season. Even the lowest SO 2 concentration reduced photosynthesis and transpiration within 1 h. Photosynthesis of the different spruce types was affected significantly differently, the most sensitive spruce being suppressed 2.5 times more than the most tolerant spruce. ‘Westerhof’ was more resistant to SO 2 than the average ‘Rachovo’ half‐sibs. Neither transpiration (stomatal reaction), which was affected alike by all SO 2 concentrations, nor SO 2 uptake, explained adequately the effects on photosynthesis. Night transpiration, but not dark respiratin, was stimulated by night SO 2 preceded by day SO 2 exposure. The gradient of different SO 2 sensitivities among young trees from the half‐sib families demonstrated a significant negative correlation with the gradient of different sensitivities to novel decline symptoms of their parents growing in a rural seed orchard in Denmark, and with the gradients of four morphology parameters, (height, branching, branch density and the number of Lammas shoots) of the young trees, which in turn demonstrated a positive correlation with decline sensitivity in the seed orchard. The relative photosynthesis sensitivity and the morphology of half‐sibs may serve as diagnostic parameters for laboratory selection of the most resistent trees to novel spruce decline in the field. There was a positive correlation between SO 2 induced scorching of Lammas shoots and the inhibition of photosynthesis, but not between the severity of SO 2 scorching and symptoms of novel spruce decline. The two visible types of symptoms looked very different.