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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2020, Vol. 12 Issue (2): 267-282    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-020-0008-7
Research article     
Responses of leaf water potential and gas exchange to the precipitation manipulation in two shrubs on the Chinese Loess Plateau
LI Yangyang1,2,*(), CHEN Jiacun2, AI Shaoshui1, SHI Hui3
1 State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
2 Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yangling 712100, China
3 School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China
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Abstract  

Regulation of leaf gas exchange plays an important role in the survival of trees and shrubs under future climate change. However, the responses of leaf water potential and gas exchange of shrubs in semi-arid areas to the precipitation alteration are not clear. Here, we conducted a manipulated experiment with three levels of precipitation, i.e., a control with ambient precipitation, 50% above ambient precipitation (irrigation treatment), and 50% below ambient precipitation (drought treatment), with two common shrubs, Salix psammophila C. Wang & C. Y. Yang (isohydric plant, maintaining a constant leaf water potential by stomatal regulation) and Caragana korshinskii Kom. (anisohydric plant, having more variable leaf water potential), on the Chinese Loess Plateau in 2014 and 2015. We measured the seasonal variations of predawn and midday leaf water potential (Ψpd and Ψmd), two parameters of gas exchange, i.e., light-saturated assimilation (An) and stomatal conductance (gs), and other foliar and canopy traits. The isohydric S. psammophila had a similar An and a higher gs than the anisohydric C. korshinskii under drought treatment in 2015, inconsistent with the view that photosynthetic capacity of anisohydric plants is higher than isohydric plants under severe drought. The two shrubs differently responded to precipitation manipulation. Ψpd, An and gs were higher under irrigation treatment than control for S. psammophila, and these three variables and Ψmd were significantly higher under irrigation treatment and lower under drought treatment than control for C. korshinskii. Leaf water potential and gas exchange responded to manipulated precipitation more strongly for C. korshinskii than for S. psammophila. However, precipitation manipulation did not alter the sensitivity of leaf gas exchange to vapor-pressure deficit and soil moisture in these two shrubs. Acclimation to long-term changes in soil moisture in these two shrubs was primarily attributed to the changes in leaf or canopy structure rather than leaf gas exchange. These findings will be useful for modeling canopy water-carbon exchange and elucidating the adaptive strategies of these two shrubs to future changes in precipitation.

Key words： drought      irrigation      leaf water potential      gas exchange      acclimation     
Published: 10 March 2020
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About author: *Corresponding author: LI Yangyang (E-mail: yyli@ms.iswc.ac.cn)
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Yangyang LI
Jiacun CHEN
Shaoshui AI
Hui SHI
Cite this article:

LI Yangyang, CHEN Jiacun, AI Shaoshui, SHI Hui. Responses of leaf water potential and gas exchange to the precipitation manipulation in two shrubs on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Journal of Arid Land, 2020, 12(2): 267-282.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-020-0008-7     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2020/V12/I2/267

Fig. 1 Seasonal variations in precipitation, solar radiation and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) during the growing seasons in 2014 (a) and 2015 (b)
Fig. 2 Variations of soil moisture within 1.0 m soil depth for Salix psammophila (a and c) and Caragana korshinskii (b and d) under different precipitation treatments in 2014 and 2015. Bars are standard errors, n=3. * and ** indicate significance among three treatments at P<0.05 and P<0.01 levels, respectively.
Fig. 3 Variations in predawn (Ψpd) and midday (Ψmd) leaf water potentials for Salix psammophila (a, b, e and f) and Caragana korshinskii (c, d, g and h) under different precipitation treatments during the growing seasons in 2014 and 2015. Bars are standard errors, n=3. * and ** indicate significance among three treatments at P<0.05 and P<0.01 levels, respectively.
Variable Salix psammophila Caragana korshinskii
Irrigation Drought N Irrigation Drought N
2014 2015 2014 2015 2014 2015 2014 2015
Ψpd 1 (+) 4 (+) 1 (-) 1 (-) 9, 11 3 (+) 9 (+) 7 (-) 10 (-) 12, 10
Ψmd 0 4 (+) 3 (-) 2 (-)/2 (+) 9, 11 2 (+) 8 (+) 2 (-) 9 (-) 12, 10
An 0 3 (+) 1 (-) 2 (-) 8, 8 0 6 (+) 0 6 (-) 10, 8
gs 2 (+) 3 (+) 0 1 (-) 8, 8 0 4 (+) 0 5 (-) 10, 8
Table 1 Number of days with significant treatment effects for irrigation and drought treatments when compared with the control for Salix psammophila and Caragana korshinskii during the growing seasons in 2014 and 2015
Variable Salix psammophila Caragana korshinskii
Control Irrigation Drought Control Irrigation Drought
Ψpd (MPa) -0.30 -0.27 (10.00) -0.34 (-13.33) -0.65* -0.50 (23.08)* -0.91 (-40.00)*
Ψmd (MPa) -1.09 -0.97 (11.01) -1.09 (0.00) -2.11* -1.93 (8.53)* -2.51 (-18.96)*
An (μmol/(m2?s)) 13.85 16.71 (20.65) 12.16 (-12.20) 16.24* 21.66 (33.37)* 11.33 (-30.23)ns
gs (mmol/(m2?s)) 119.00 142.50 (19.80) 106.10 (-10.85) 116.00ns 159.20 (37.25)* 75.80 (-34.66)*
Table 2 Averaged leaf water potentials and gas exchange parameters for Salix psammophila and Caragana korshinskii during the growing season in 2015
Fig. 4 Relationships of predawn leaf water potential (Ψpd) with midday leaf water potential (Ψmd) and water potential gradient (ΔΨ, Ψpd-Ψmd) for Salix psammophila (a and b) and Caragana korshinskii (c and d) under different precipitation treatments. Bars are standard errors. Data from 2014 and 2015 were pooled together, in which n=9 in 2014 and 11 in 2015 for S. psammophila, and 12 in 2014 and 10 in 2015 for C. korshinskii.
Fig. 5 Variations in light-saturated net assimilation (An) and stomatal conductance (gs) for Salix psammophila (a, b, c and d) and Caragana korshinskii (e, f, g and h) under different precipitation treatments during the growing seasons in 2014 and 2015. Bars are standard errors, n=3. * and ** indicate significance among three treatments at P<0.05 and P<0.01 levels, respectively.
Fig. 6 Relationship between light-saturated net assimilation (An) and stomatal conductance (gs) for Salix psammophila (a) and Caragana korshinskii (b) under different precipitation treatments. Bars are standard errors. Data from 2014 and 2015 were pooled together, in which n=48 for S. psammophila and 54 for C. korshinskii.
Fig. 7 Relationships of light-saturated net assimilation (An) and stomatal conductance (gs) with VPD (vapor pressure deficit) for Salix psammophila (a and b) and Caragana korshinskii (c and d) under different precipitation treatments. Bars are standard errors. Data from 2014 and 2015 were pooled together, in which n=48 for S. psammophila and n=54 for C. korshinskii.
Fig. 8 Relationships of light-saturated net assimilation (An) and stomatal conductance (gs) with predawn leaf water potential (Ψpd) for Salix psammophila (a and b) and Caragana korshinskii (c and d) under different precipitation treatments. Bars are standard errors. Data from 2014 and 2015 were pooled together, in which n=48 for S. psammophila and n=54 for C. korshinskii.
Species Treatment LMA (g/m2) δ13C (‰)
May August May August
Salix psammophila Control 74.33±2.03a 123.05±5.40a -24.8±0.1a -25.6±0.2ab
Irrigation 61.11±3.37b 99.11±9.85b -25.4±0.1b -26.0±0.1b
Drought 72.00±2.08a 125.09±10.7a -25.0±0.3ab -25.2±0.1a
Caragana korshinskii Control 63.37±1.68 104.30±2.79 -25.2±0.1 -26.2±0.4
Irrigation 61.77±2.92 104.73±1.37 -25.5±0.4 -25.7±0.3
Drought 59.42±1.23 89.92±3.48 -24.9±0.2 -25.9±0.1
Table 3 Leaf mass per area (LMA) and δ13C for Salix psammophila and Caragana korshinskii during the growing season in 2015
Fig. 9 Leaf area index of Salix psammophila (a) and Caragana korshinskii (b) under different precipitation treatments during the growing seasons in 2014 and 2015. Bars are standard errors, n=3. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences among different treatments at P<0.05 level.
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