The effects of nitrogen, light and water availability on tropic leaf movements in soybean (Glycine max)

Abstract

Abstract. Rapid, tropic leaf movements and photo‐synthetic responses of the heliotropic plant, soybean, Glycine max cv. Cumberland, grown under two different nitrogen, three different light and two different water treatments were examined. Measurements of leaf orientation during midday periods outdoors, and tropic reorientation of leaflets in response to vertical illumination indoors, revealed a positive, linear relationship between leaf water potential and the cosine of the angle of incidence between the leaf and the direct beam of the excitation light. This relationship was altered by nitrogen availability, such that a lower cosine of incidence (lower leaf irradiance) for a given leaf water potential was measured for plants grown under low nitrogen compared to those grown under high nitrogen. Additionally, plants grown under low nitrogen and low water availability showed more rapid rates of leaf movement compared to plants receiving high levels of these resources. Light regime during growth had no effect on the relationship between the cosine of incidence and leaf water potential. Reduced water and nitrogen availabilities during growth resulted in lower photosaturated rates of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance, as well as alterations in the relationship between these parameters. Thus, higher values for the ratio of intercellular CO2/ambient CO2 were measured for low‐N grown plants (higher nitrogen use efficiencies) and lower values of this ratio for water stressed plants (higher water use efficiencies). The results show that environmental growth conditions other than water availability have the potential to modify leaf orientation responses to vectorial light in heliotropic legumes such as soybean. This has implications for the potential of heliotropic movements to minimize environmental stress‐induced damage to the photosynthetic apparatus, and to modulate leaf‐level resource use efficiencies.