Stomatal characteristics and transpiration of three species of conifer seedlings planted on a high elevation south-facing clear-cut

Abstract

Douglas-fir (Pseudotsugamenziessi (Mirb.) Franco), western hemlock (Tsugaheterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.), and Pacific silver fir (Abiesamabalis (Doug.) Forbes) seedlings were planted in the spring as 1-0 container-grown plugs on a south-facing high elevation clear-cut located on Mount Arrowsmith, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and their stomatal responses to environmental and physiological variables were determined over two successive growing seasons. The stomatal responses of all three species to changes in environmental variables and time did not differ over the 2 years nor were there differences in response between seedlings planted a year apart. A simple multiplicative boundary-line model that related seedling stomatal conductance (gs) to measurements of hourly average solar irradiance, air temperature, vapour pressure deficit, and average root zone soil water potential accounted for over 70% of the variability in gs. When the number of hours from sunrise was included as an independent variable, over 85% of the variability in gs could be explained. Daily seedlings transpiration rates on a projected leaf area basis were successfully estimated by summing the product of the calculated average gs and D/(RvT′) where D is the vapour pressure deficit, Rv is the gas constant for water vapour, and T′ is the absolute air temperature.