Seasonal variations in tolerance to ion leakage following desiccation in the moss Atrichum androgynum from a KwaZulu-Natal afromontane forest

Abstract

A simple ion leakage assay was used to test if seasonal variation in changes in membrane permeability in response to desiccation occurs in a single population of the moss Atrichum androgynum. Ion leakage following rewetting of dry plants was measured at monthly intervals from the end of a wet season, throughout a dry season and at the beginning of the next wet season. At the end of the first wet season, plants pretreated for 24 h at relative humidities of 0% or 53% lost c. 80% of their intracellular K + following rewetting. The proportion of K + lost progressively declined until by the end of the dry season plants lost less than 25%. After the start of the second wet season K + loss increased. Thallus K + concentrations fell slightly during the experimental period, while the osmotic potential at full turgor (ψ πs ) decreased from − 0.75 to − 1.20 MPa. However, the increase in sensitivity at the start of the second wet season was not accompanied by a rise in ψ πs , suggesting that no simple relationship exists between the susceptibility of plants to ion leakage and ψ πs