Abstract:
Photosynthetic characteristics of south-facing single full-leaf in one-year branch of
Platanus acerifolia L. with branch and stem pruning (BSP) or under natural conditions (NG) were determined using Li-6400 portable photo-meter. The results show that diurnal variations in net photosynthetic rate (
Pn) of
P. acerifolia single full-leaf under BSP and NG follows a di-peak curve. The first peak appears at 11:00, the second at 15:00, while the minimum peak occurs at 13:00 (when light intensity is highest). This indicates a remarkable midday depression. The leaves under both conditions suffer from photo-inhibition.
Pn μmol(CO
2)·m
-2·s
-1 of the first peak, second peak and the minimum peak of
P. acerifolia leaf under BSP are 12.16, 9.21 and 6.47, which are respectively 27.06%, 69.93% and 159.84% higher than those under NG. This implies that BSP improves photosynthesis, while at the same time reduces photo-inhibition. Best-fit response curves for
Pn to photosynthetic photon flux density (
PPFD) in
P. acerifolia leaf under BSP and NG are expressed as
Pn = 12.30 (1-1.135 3 e
-0.030 2PPFDD/12.30) (
R2=0.989 1**) and
Pn = 10.92 (1-1.130 7e
-0.030 5PPFD/10.92) (
R2=0.984 9**) respectively. The values of max
Pn (
Pmax), light compensate point, light saturation point and
PPFD range of
P. acerifolia leaf under BSP are 12.30 μmol(CO
2)·m
-2·s
-1, 51.67 μmol·m
-2·s
-1, 1 927.32 μmol·m
-2·s
-1 and 1 875.65 μmol·m
-2·s
-1 respectively; which are 12.64%, 17.33%, 13.85% and 13.76% higher than those under NG, respectively. This suggests that BSP treatment could increase utilization of light energy in
P. acerifolia. The best-fit response curves for
Pn to CO
2 concentration (
Ci) of
P. acerifolia leaf under BSP and NG are expressed as
Pn=11.96(1-1.471 6e
-0.028 7Ci/11.96) (
R2=0.982 4**),
Pn=10.70 (1-1.465 7e
-0.029 2Ci/10.70) (
R2 = 0.981 0**), respectively.
Pmax, CO
2 compensate point and CO
2 saturation poing and
Ci range under BSP are respectively 11.96 μmol(CO
2)·m
-2·s
-1, 67.54 μmol·mol
-1, 872.02 μmol·mol
-1, and 804.48 μmol·mol
-1; which are 11.78%, -27.44%, 0.39% and 3.73% higher than those under NG, respectively. This indicates that BSP treatment increases CO
2 assimilation ability of
P. acerifolia under low CO
2 concentration condition.