Effects of shading and drought on light-induced stomatal dynamics in Betula platyphylla seedlings

Abstract

Two factors-two levels experiment (full light and shading, the irradiance in the shading was 30% of the full light; normal water and drought, where soil moisture was maintained at 75%-80% and 40%-45% of field capacity, respectively) was conducted to study the variation of light-induced stomatal dynamics, stomatal traits, whole plant growth and water use under shading and drought for the early succession stage species Betula platyphylla seedlings in the hilly area of the Loess Plateau. Results showed that shading significantly increased lag and response time by 0.8 and 1.8 times during stomatal opening, decreased response speed significantly by 82.2% and 65.0%, and response amplitude by 43.3% and 56.9% during stomatal opening and closing, respectively. Drought significantly reduced response amplitude by 43.9% during stomatal opening and response speed by 33.0% during stomatal closing. The interaction of shading and drought only affected lag time during stomatal opening. The response speed during stomatal closing was significantly positively correlated with stomatal density and stomatal index. There was no significant correlation between other stomatal dynamic parameters and stomatal anatomical structure. Response speed during stomatal closing was positively correlated with whole plant biomass and water consumption, and there was no correlation between stomatal dynamics parameters and water use efficiency. The results showed that the effects of shading and drought on light-induced stomatal dynamics were partly attributed to the alteration of stomata anatomical structure, and that the light-induced stomatal dynamic parameters could partly explain the alterations of B. platyphylla growth under different habitats.