Current research on the effect of increased UV-B radiation on crop production has been limited to exposing plants to improbable UV-B dose or growth condition. The objective of this study was to test the effects of short-term modulated increased UV-B radiation on maize (Zea mays L.) growth, grain yield, and quality under field conditions for three years. A modulated irradiance system was used to maintain UV-B radiation at 30% above the ambient level and was applied daily between the elongation and silking stages of maize. The result indicated that increased UV-B radiation adversely affected maize growth and yield, especially on plant height when UV-B was enhanced at the elongation stage and on yield when UV-B was enhanced near the silking stage. Yield reduction that induced by enhanced UV-B radiation was associated with reductions in number of kernels per row and kernel mass. Protein content of grains was increased with enhanced UV-B radiation, but oil and starch contents were not affected. This study confirmed the sensitivity of maize to increased UV-B radiation under the field condition, and contributed to understand the full negative and positive effects of increased UV-B radiation on crop production., L. N. Yin, S. W. Wang., and Obsahuje bibliografii
We investigated the effect of moderate Cu2+ and Cd2+ stress by applying chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence and P700 absorbance measurements to monitor the photosynthetic electron transport activity of 3-week-old Pisum sativum L. cv. Petit Provençal plants grown in a modified Hoagland solution containing 50 μM CuSO4 or 5 μM CdCl2. Both heavy metals caused a slight inhibition in PSII photochemistry as indicated by the decrease in the effective quantum efficiency of PSII (ΦPSII), the maximum electron transport capacity (ETRmax), and the maximum quantum yield for electron transport (α). PSI photochemistry was also affected by these heavy metals. Cu2+ and Cd2+ decreased the quantum efficiency of PSI (ΦPSI) as well as the number of electrons in the intersystem chain, and the Cu2+ treatment significantly reduced the number of electrons from stromal donors available for PSI. These results indicate that PSII and PSI photochemistry of pea plants are both sensitive to moderate Cu2+ and Cd2+ stress, which in turn is easily detected and monitored by Chl fluorescence and P700 absorbance measurements. Therefore, monitoring the photochemistry of pea plants with these noninvasive, yet sensitive techniques offers a promising strategy to study heavy metal toxicity in the environment., B. Wodala ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Athyrium pachyphlebium C. is a popular ornamental fern with considerable shade tolerance. The aim of this study was to investigate how the mature sporophytes acclimate to different light levels and to obtain an optimal light environment for their growth both in natural forest canopy and in urban landscapes. Plant growth and morphology, photosynthetic light-response curves and chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence were measured at four different light levels (45% full sunlight, 30%, 20% and 8%). As the light intensities declined from 45% to 20%, seedling height, crown growth, foliage number and plant lifespan increased significantly. Seedlings grown at 20% light level were vigorous with great ornamental value. Plants grown in deep shade (8% light) showed severe symptoms of lodging and in 45% full sun, the plants showed highlight-stress symptoms. Seedlings in high light levels exhibited a higher
light-saturated photosynthetic rate (P max), light compensation point (LCP), light saturation point (LSP) and a reduced ability for nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) of excess light than those in low light levels. However, seedlings in low light exhibited greater efficiency in absorbing and utilizing light energy, characterized by higher chlorophyll b (Chl b) and electron transport rate (ETR). These results indicated that a light level of about 20% full sun appeared to be optimal for A. pachyphlebium when both physiological and morphological performance in the landscape were considered. and D. Huang ... [et al.].
This paper describes the technical information and performance of a new multi-objective chamber system enabling the control of environmental variables (e.g., temperature, CO2, air humidity, wind speed, and UV-B radiation) for understanding plant responses to climate change. Over a whole growing season, four different climate scenarios were evenly programmed into the system’s 16 chambers as ambient environment (AMB), elevated temperature (ET), elevated CO2 concentration (EC) and elevated temperature and CO2 concentration (ETC). Simultaneously, the chamber effects were assessed regarding the physiological responses and growth of a boreal perennial grass (reed canary grass, Phalaris arundinacea L.). During the growing season, the chamber system provided a wide variety of climatic conditions for air temperature (T a), relative humidity (RH) and CO2 concentration (C a) in the AMB chambers following outside conditions. The target temperature (+3.5°C) was achieved to a good degree in the ET and ETC chambers, being on average 3.3°C and 3.7°C higher than ambient conditions, respectively. The target concentration of CO2 (700 ppm) was also well achieved in the EC and ETC chambers, being on average 704 ppm and 703 ppm, respectively. The stable airflow condition inside all of the chambers provided a homogeneous distribution of gases and temperature. The decreases in RH and increases in vapour pressure deficit (VPD) in the elevated temperature chambers were also maintained at a low level. Chamber effects were observed, with some physiological and growth parameters of plants being significantly lower in the AMB chambers, compared to outside conditions. The plant growth was negatively affected by the reduced radiation inside the chambers., X. Zhou ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Miscanthus is one of the most promising bioenergy crops with high photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency (PNUE). It is unclear how nitrogen (N) influences the photosynthesis in Miscanthus. Among three Miscanthus genotypes, the net photosynthetic rate (PN) under the different light intensity and CO2 concentration was measured at three levels of N: 0, 100, and 200 kg ha-1. The concentrations of chlorophyll, soluble protein, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) large subunit, leaf anatomy and carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) in the leaf were analyzed to probe the response of photosynthesis in Miscanthus genotypes to N levels. PN in all genotypes rose significantly as N application increased. The initial slope of response curves of PN to Ci was promoted by N application in all genotypes. Both stomatal conductance and Ci were increased with increased N supply, indicating that stomatal factors played an important role in increasing PN. At a given Ci, PN in all genotypes was enhanced by N, implying that nonstomatal factors might also play an important role in increasing PN. Miscanthus markedly regulated N investment into PEPC rather than the Rubisco large subunit under higher N conditions. Bundle sheath leakiness of CO2 was constant at about 0.35 for all N levels. Therefore, N enhanced the photosynthesis of Miscanthus mainly by increasing stomatal conductance and PEPC concentration., X.-P. Feng ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje bibliografii
For Tunisian olive tree orchards, nitrogen deficiency is an important nutritional problem, in addition to the availability of water. Establishment of relationships between nutrients such as nitrogen and ecophysiological parameters is a promising method to manage fertilisation at orchard level. Therefore, a nitrogen stress experiment with one-year-old olive trees (Olea europaea L. 'Koroneiki' and 'Meski') was conducted with trees respectively subjected to four nitrogen supply regimes (23.96 meq l-1, 9.58 meq l-1, 4.79 meq l-1 and 0 meq l-1 NO3-).
The current paper focuses on the use of the SPAD-502 portable chlorophyll (Chl) meter, a nondestructive method for fertilisation management under nitrogen stress conditions of olive trees. Maximum net photosynthetic assimilation rates, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and the SPAD Chl index were therefore measured simultaneously and the Chl and nitrogen content of the leaves were analysed. Significant correlations were established in the olive tree leaves between SPAD-502 readings on the one hand and Chl content, nitrogen content, photosynthetic assimilation rate, and Chl fluorescence parameters (ΦPSII and ETR) on the other hand. and O. Boussadia ... [et al.].
Leaf area of a plant is essential to understand the interaction between plant growth and environment. This useful variable can be determined by using direct (some expensive instruments) and indirect (prediction models) methods. Leaf area of a plant can be predicted by accurate and simple leaf area models without damaging the plant, thus, provide researchers with many advantages in horticultural experiments. Several leaf-area prediction models have been produced for some plant species in optimum conditions, but not for a plant grown under stress conditions. This study was conducted to develop leaf area estimation models by using linear measurements such as lamina length and width by multiple regression analysis for green pepper grown under different stress conditions. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted in a greenhouse. The first experiment focused to determine leaf area of green pepper grown under six different levels of irrigation water salinity (0.65, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 7.0 dS m-1) and the other under four different irrigation regime (amount of applied water was 1.43, 1.0, 0.75, and 0.50 times of required water). In addition to general models for each experiment, prediction models of green pepper for each treatment of irrigation water salinity and of irrigation regime experiments were obtained. Validations of the models for both experiments were realized by using the measurements belong to leaf samples allocated for validation purposes. As a result, the determined equations can simply and readily be used in prediction of leaf area of green pepper grown under salinity and water stress conditions. The use of such models enable researchers to measure leaf area on the same plants during the plant growth period and, at the same time, may reduce variability in experiments. and B. Cemek ... [et al.].
Nondestructive approach of modeling leaf area could be useful for plant growth estimation especially when number of available plants is limited and/or experiment demands repeated estimation of leaf area over a time scale. A total of 1,280 leaves were selected randomly from eight different morphotypes of som (Persea bombycina) established at randomized complete block design under recommended cultural regimes in field. Maximum leaf laminar width (B), length (L) and their squares B2, L2; leaf area (LA), and lamina length × width (L×B) were determined over two successive seasons. Leaf parameters were significantly affected by morphotypes; but seasons had nonsignificant impacts on tested features. Therefore, pooled seasonal morphotype means of each parameter were used to establish relationship with LA. L and its square L2 did not provide accurate models for LA predictions. Considerably better models were obtained by using B (y = 2.984 + 7.9664 x, R2 = 0.615, P≥0.001, n = 119) and B2 (y = 12.784+ 0.9604 x, R2 = 0.605, P≥0.001, n = 119) as independent variables. However, maximum accuracy of prediction of LA could be achieved through a simple linear relationship of L×B (y = 8.2203 + 0.4224 x, R2 = 0.843, P≥0.0001, n = 119). The model (LA:L×B) was validated with randomly selected leaf samples (n = 360) of som morphotypes and highly significant (P≤0.001) linear function was found between actual and predicted LAs. Therefore, the last model may consider adequate to predict leaf area of all cultivars of som with sufficient fidelity. and S. Chattopadhyay ... [et al.].
Sklenobýl bezlistý (Epipogium aphyllum) patří mezi nejvzácnější druhy naší flóry. Roste v bučinách a jehličnatých lesích s humózní půdou, často na lesních prameništích. Ještě donedávna byl v Čechách hodnocen jako nezvěstný. V r. 2006 se ale podařilo objevit několik malých lokalit na Šumavském Boubíně, poté v r. 2008 i jedna lokalita v Krkonoších. V červnu r. 2013 v náplavech Jizery a hned u cesty nedaleko Kořenova se podařilo objevit další dvě mikrolokality tohoto ohroženého druhu. Bylo by velmi povzbuzující domnívat se, že nárůst počtu lokalit nejen sklenobýlu, ale i jiných ohrožených druhů indikuje zlepšující se stav prostředí., Epipogium aphyllum is one of the rarest plant species of the Czech flora. It grows in humus-rich soil in beech and spruce forests, often in the vicinity of forest springs. The species has been considered missing in Bohemia until recent discoveries of a few sites in Boubín in the Šumava Mts. (Bohemian Forest, 2006) and in the Krkonoše Mts. (Giant Mts., 2008). Two new populations were found in the Giant Mts. in June 2013 - in alluvial deposits of the Jizera river and along the forest road close to the Kořenov village., and Pavla Čížková, Kamila Lencová, Pavel Hubený.