Dataset Information

Complete or overcompensatory thermal acclimation of leaf dark respiration in African tropical trees.

ABSTRACT: Tropical climates are getting warmer, with pronounced dry periods in large areas. The productivity and climate feedbacks of future tropical forests depend on the ability of trees to acclimate their physiological processes, such as leaf dark respiration (R_d ), to these new conditions. However, knowledge on this is currently limited due to data scarcity. We studied the impact of growth temperature on R_d and its dependency on net photosynthesis (A_n ), leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contents, and leaf mass per unit area (LMA) in 16 early-successional (ES) and late-successional (LS) tropical tree species in multispecies plantations along an elevation gradient (Rwanda TREE project). Moreover, we explored the effect of drought on R_d in one ES and one LS species. Leaf R_d at 20°C decreased at warmer sites, regardless if it was expressed per unit leaf area, mass, N or P. This acclimation resulted in an 8% and a 28% decrease in R_d at prevailing nighttime temperatures in trees at the intermediate and warmest sites, respectively. Moreover, drought reduced R_d , particularly in the ES species and at the coolest site. Thermal acclimation of R_d is complete or overcompensatory and independent of changes in leaf nutrients or LMA in African tropical trees.

SUBMITTER: Mujawamariya M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7898918 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Complete or overcompensatory thermal acclimation of leaf dark respiration in African tropical trees.

Mujawamariya Myriam M Wittemann Maria M Manishimwe Aloysie A Ntirugulirwa Bonaventure B Zibera Etienne E Nsabimana Donat D Wallin Göran G Uddling Johan J Dusenge Mirindi Eric ME

The New phytologist 20201206 5

Tropical climates are getting warmer, with pronounced dry periods in large areas. The productivity and climate feedbacks of future tropical forests depend on the ability of trees to acclimate their physiological processes, such as leaf dark respiration (Rd ), to these new conditions. However, knowledge on this is currently limited due to data scarcity. We studied the impact of growth temperature on Rd and its dependency on net photosynthesis (An ), leaf nitrogen ...[more]

PMID: 33113226

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Project description:Dry periods are predicted to become more frequent and severe in the future in some parts of the tropics, including Amazonia, potentially causing reduced productivity, higher tree mortality and increased emissions of stored carbon. Using a long-term (12 year) through-fall exclusion (TFE) experiment in the tropics, we test the hypothesis that trees produce leaves adapted to cope with higher levels of water stress, by examining the following leaf characteristics: area, thickness, leaf mass per area, vein density, stomatal density, the thickness of palisade mesophyll, spongy mesophyll and both of the epidermal layers, internal cavity volume and the average cell sizes of the palisade and spongy mesophyll. We also test whether differences in leaf anatomy are consistent with observed differential drought-induced mortality responses among taxa, and look for relationships between leaf anatomy, and leaf water relations and gas exchange parameters. Our data show that trees do not produce leaves that are more xeromorphic in response to 12 years of soil moisture deficit. However, the drought treatment did result in increases in the thickness of the adaxial epidermis (TFE: 20.5 ± 1.5 µm, control: 16.7 ± 1.0 µm) and the internal cavity volume (TFE: 2.43 ± 0.50 mm3 cm-2, control: 1.77 ± 0.30 mm3 cm-2). No consistent differences were detected between drought-resistant and drought-sensitive taxa, although interactions occurred between drought-sensitivity status and drought treatment for the palisade mesophyll thickness (P = 0.034) and the cavity volume of the leaves (P = 0.025). The limited response to water deficit probably reflects a tight co-ordination between leaf morphology, water relations and photosynthetic properties. This suggests that there is little plasticity in these aspects of plant anatomy in these taxa, and that phenotypic plasticity in leaf traits may not facilitate the acclimation of Amazonian trees to the predicted future reductions in dry season water availability.

Dataset Information

Complete or overcompensatory thermal acclimation of leaf dark respiration in African tropical trees.

Publications

Complete or overcompensatory thermal acclimation of leaf dark respiration in African tropical trees.

Similar Datasets

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