TY - JOUR
T1 - Measurement of photosynthesis in excised leaves of ornamental trees
T2 - a novel method to estimate leaf level drought tolerance and increase experimental sample size
AU - Kar, Suraj
AU - Montague, D. Thayne
AU - Villanueva-Morales, Antonio
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Department of Plant and Soil Science and College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources for supporting this research. Mention of a trademark, proprietary product, or vendor does not constitute a guarantee, or warranty of the product by Texas Tech University, or Texas AgriLife Research, and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products or vendors which may also be suitable.
Funding Information:
We thank the Department of Plant and Soil Science and College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources for supporting this research. Mention of a trademark, proprietary product, or vendor does not constitute a guarantee, or warranty of the product by Texas Tech University, or Texas AgriLife Research, and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products or vendors which may also be suitable.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Key message: Measuring gas exchange on excised ornamental tree leaves may be a rapid and accurate method to study leaf-level drought tolerance, and greatly increase experiment sample size. Abstract: Drought is a common phenomenon in arid and semi-arid urban environments. Because water is valuable and limited in these environments, it is crucial to study drought tolerance of ornamental tree species used in urban forests. In a first of its kind study, we observed leaf-level drought tolerance using photosynthetic decline curves in excised leaves of seven ornamental urban tree species: Shantung maple (Acer truncatum), Mexican redbud (Cercis canadensis mexicana), Texas redbud (C. canadensis texensis), White redbud (C. canadensis texensis ‘Alba’), Oklahoma redbud (C. canadensis texensis ‘Oklahoma’), Chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii), and English oak (Q. robur). For both excised and non-excised treatments, two leaves from the same tree were simultaneously clamped into cuvettes of two Li-Cor LI 6400 XT portable photosynthetic systems. For the excision treatment, the leaf was excised from the branch at 120 s. By comparing photosynthetic decline curves from excised leaves with their non-excised counterparts, we found Mexican redbud and White redbud leaves take a longer period of time (450 s. and 360 s., respectively) compared to English oak leaves (90 s.) to show a significant decline in photosynthetic gas exchange. This technique also proposes a solution to a common problem faced by many plant researchers. While using the leaf excision technique on large trees, we were able to significantly increase sample size with rapidity and accuracy. Thus, we suggest measuring gas exchange on excised leaves of select ornamental tree species as a rapid and accurate method to estimate leaf-level drought tolerance, and greatly increase the number of samples measured in a given time period.
AB - Key message: Measuring gas exchange on excised ornamental tree leaves may be a rapid and accurate method to study leaf-level drought tolerance, and greatly increase experiment sample size. Abstract: Drought is a common phenomenon in arid and semi-arid urban environments. Because water is valuable and limited in these environments, it is crucial to study drought tolerance of ornamental tree species used in urban forests. In a first of its kind study, we observed leaf-level drought tolerance using photosynthetic decline curves in excised leaves of seven ornamental urban tree species: Shantung maple (Acer truncatum), Mexican redbud (Cercis canadensis mexicana), Texas redbud (C. canadensis texensis), White redbud (C. canadensis texensis ‘Alba’), Oklahoma redbud (C. canadensis texensis ‘Oklahoma’), Chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii), and English oak (Q. robur). For both excised and non-excised treatments, two leaves from the same tree were simultaneously clamped into cuvettes of two Li-Cor LI 6400 XT portable photosynthetic systems. For the excision treatment, the leaf was excised from the branch at 120 s. By comparing photosynthetic decline curves from excised leaves with their non-excised counterparts, we found Mexican redbud and White redbud leaves take a longer period of time (450 s. and 360 s., respectively) compared to English oak leaves (90 s.) to show a significant decline in photosynthetic gas exchange. This technique also proposes a solution to a common problem faced by many plant researchers. While using the leaf excision technique on large trees, we were able to significantly increase sample size with rapidity and accuracy. Thus, we suggest measuring gas exchange on excised leaves of select ornamental tree species as a rapid and accurate method to estimate leaf-level drought tolerance, and greatly increase the number of samples measured in a given time period.
KW - Drought stress
KW - Gas exchange
KW - Leaf excision
KW - Sample size
KW - Urban ornamental trees
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099744978&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00468-021-02088-w
DO - 10.1007/s00468-021-02088-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099744978
SN - 0931-1890
VL - 35
SP - 889
EP - 905
JO - Trees - Structure and Function
JF - Trees - Structure and Function
IS - 3
ER -