Photosynthetic efficiency in rhizophoracean mangroves with reference to compartmentalization of photosynthetic pigments

Abstract

Photosynthetic pigments are localized in protein complexes of chloroplast membranes and their role in photosynthesis has long been established but their efficiency has not been measured in many species. The photosynthetic efficiency of four rhizophoracean mangroves, Rhizophora apiculata, R. mucronata, Bruguiera cylindrica and Ceriops decandra was studied in randomly collected propagules from Pichavaram mangrove forest (southeast coast of India) by estimating the concentration of photosynthetic pigments in protein complexes of the thylakoid membrane. Reaction centre chlorophyll (RC-chl) was maximum in B. cylindrica and minimum in R. mucronata. Of the total amount of chlorophylls, RC-chl constitutes about 50%. The light harvesting complex chlorophyll (LHC-chl) was highest in C. decandra and lowest in R. mucronata. Net photosynthesis was found to be higher in B. cylindrica and lower in R. mucronata with the respective CO2 fixation of 20.52 and 10.83 μmol m-2s-1. A positive correlation was obtained between RC-chl and net photosynthesis. The stomatal conductance to CO2 influx was also found to be high and low in B. cylindrica and R. mucronata respectively. We refer the chlorophylls present in the reaction centre and light harvesting complex as “ membrane bound chlorophyll” and propose to use this as an index for measuring the productivity of mangrove species