The effect of increasing elevation on leaf cuticle thickness and cuticular transpiration in balsam fir

1984 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 2423-2431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan H. DeLucia ◽  
Graeme P. Berlyn

First-year needles and stems of Abies balsamea were collected at the end of the growing season along an elevational gradient on Mt. Moosilauke, NH. Tissue was sampled from the base (732 m), midslope (1143 m), forest limit (1402 m), and tree line (1455 m). Mean cuticle thickness on the adaxial needle surface decreased with increasing elevation from 3.01 to 2.21 μm. A similar decline was observed for the cutinized cell wall at the lower three elevations. Associated with the decline in cuticular thickness was a 59.3% increase in the rate of cuticular water loss per gram dry weight from 732 to 1402 m. The amount of epicuticular wax and other features of leaf anatomy were also examined along the elevational gradient. The high rates of cuticular water loss in these subalpine trees increase the risk of desiccation damage at high elevations and support the concept that they can be a contributing factor in the formation of alpine tree line.

1988 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-45
Author(s):  
L. Eric Hinesley ◽  
Robert D. Wright

Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) were potted and solution fed once weekly during 2 growing seasons with 5 levels of N in the irrigation water: 50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 ppm. Leaders were treated with 750 ppm 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) in late June of the first year. The higher N levels resulted in greater stem diameter, greater foliage dry weight, longer and heavier needle fascicles, better foliage color, greater budset after application of BA, and more and longer branches on the BA-treated leader the second growing season. BA should be applied to trees with N concentration ≥ 1.5% in one-year-old foliage.


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 163-168
Author(s):  
S.L. Kingsley-Richards ◽  
L.P. Perry

Abstract Overwintering container-grown perennial plants is often necessary during their production. Rooted vegetative cuttings potted at the beginning of the growing season and rooted vegetative cuttings potted at the beginning of the previous growing season, were exposed to−2,−5,−8,−11, and−14C (28, 23, 18, 12, 7F) in January then returned to a greenhouse kept at 3 to 5C (37 to 41F). In June, plants were assessed using a visual rating scale (1 = dead, 3–5 = increasing salable quality) and dry weight of foliage regrowth. For Geranium × cantabrigiense ‘Karmina’, studied for one year, age did not affect either rating or dry weight. For Sedum ‘Matrona’, studied for two years, age had no effect on dry weight but ratings were higher for two-year-old plants than one-year-old plants in the first year and higher for one-year-old plants than two-year-old plants in the second year. For Leucanthemum × superbum ‘Becky’, studied for two years, age affected both rating and dry weight, which were higher for one-year-old plants. Of the cultivars studied, overwintering one-year-old, container-grown plants resulted in more growth and higher quality than overwintered two-year-old plants.


1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 1376-1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.C. Grossnickle ◽  
J.E. Major ◽  
R.S. Folk

Interior spruce (Piceaglauca (Moench) Voss × Piceaengelmannii Parry) seedlings and emblings (plants produced via somatic embryogenesis tissue culture) were grown as container 1 + 0 plants. Seedling and embling morphological development was monitored during the growing season. Needle freezing tolerance, days to terminal bud break (DBB1), root growth capacity (RGC), and shoot dry weight fraction (DWF) were monitored during the fall and in frozen storage. Emblings had slower height, diameter, and root growth rates during the initial 2.5 months in the nursery. Thereafter, seedlings and emblings had equal height growth rate, while emblings had greater diameter and root growth rates. At the end of the growing season, seedlings and emblings, respectively, had 23.8 and 14.2 cm shoot height, 4.0 and 3.4 mm diameter, and 0.81 and 0.80 g root dry weight. During the fall, DBB1 of both seedlings and emblings decreased, with emblings having a more rapid decrease. Both seedlings and emblings showed a similar increase in freezing tolerance. Emblings had a greater increase in DWF. During the fall, RGC decreased then increased, with seedlings displaying a greater increase than emblings. While in frozen storage, seedlings and emblings maintained a low DBB1, and a high RGC and DWF. Freezing tolerance decreased while in frozen storage, with the loss more pronounced among seedlings. A degree growth stage model describes the first year cycle of development for seedlings and emblings. Results indicate that seedlings and emblings have slightly different patterns of first year growth and fall acclimation. However, both seedlings and emblings were at the end of rest when lifted for frozen storage.


1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-58
Author(s):  
R. E. Farmer Jr. ◽  
P. E. Barnett

Black cherry (Prunusserotina Ehrh.) seedlings from low elevation sources (300–490 m) in the southern Appalachian mountains formed floral buds during their initial growing season; seedlings from high elevations (1150–1475 m) did not exhibit first year floral initiation.


HortScience ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-346
Author(s):  
Joanne E. MacDonald ◽  
John N. Owens

We compared the effects of different durations of short days (SDs) as a dormancy-induction regime on bud development, bud endodormancy, and morphology of first-year containerized coastal douglas fir [Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii] seedlings in the nursery together with seedling survival and growth after one growing season in a common garden. In early July, four durations of 8-h SDs were applied: 3, 4, 5, and 6 weeks. During the first week of SDs, budscale initiation started and was completed; then initiation of needles for next year's leading shoot (leader) began. Needle initiation was completed 10 weeks after the start of the regime in seedlings given 5 or 6 weeks of SDs and 13 weeks for those given 3 or 4 weeks of SDs. In early October, duration of SDs had no effect on bud endodormancy; 50% to 88% of terminal buds were endodormant. On this date, seedling height and shoot dry weight were unaffected by duration of SDs, whereas root dry weight and shoot diameter were significantly reduced in seedlings given 6 weeks of SDs compared with other durations. After one growing season, duration of SDs had no effect on seedling survival, leader length, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, or shoot diameter. We recommend the 3-week duration of SDs for coastal douglas fir crops.


HortScience ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 1178-1180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis E. Deyton ◽  
Carl E. Sams ◽  
John C. Cummins

Foliar sprays of increasing concentrations (0, 75, 150, 300, 600, and 1200 mg·liter-1) of paclobutrazol were applied to `Cardinal' strawberry plants (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) 35 days after transplanting. The plants were established in August in cultivated plots for measurement of paclobutrazol effects on first year growth or in a double-row hill system on black polyethylene-covered raised beds for 2nd year measurements. Increasing the paclobutrazol concentration reduced the number of runners, decreased runner length, and limited biomass partitioned into daughter plants. By the end of the first growing season, paclobutrazol had increased lateral crown development but reduced leaf area per treated plant. Root growth was reduced by concentrations >600 mg·liter-1. Treatment with 75 to 300 mg·liter-1 increased total plant dry weight by 33% to 46%. The following spring, plant growth was decreased by ≥ 300 mg·liter-1. Yield was increased by all treatments, except 1200 mg·liter-1. Leaf net photosynthesis increased within 12 days after treatment with paclobutrazol and was higher than in the controls the next summer. Leaf stomata1 conductance also increased the first year and was significantly higher the 2nd year after treatment. The optimum concentration of paclobutrazol for strawberries appears to be between 150 and 300 mg·liter-1.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Asghar Ghaemi ◽  
Mohammad Rafie Rafiee

Cultivation environment can be effective on the degree of limitations in crop evapotranspiration and yield, as a result of water shortage and salinity. The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the impact of different irrigation regimes (daily, weekly and every two weeks) combined with different water salinities (0.8, 2.5, 5.0 and, 7.0 dS m-1) on eggplant yield (Y) and evapotranspiration (ETc) in outdoor and greenhouse cultivation. Daily ETc values were measured by diurnal weighting of microlysimeters throughout the growing season (from May 19th to September 5th, 2012 and June 1st to September 22nd, 2013) placed in a plastic greenhouse and outdoor basins. Measurements showed apparent variations between different irrigation regimes×water salinity treatments, during the early growing season in both years. Both water deficit and salinity factors had significant effects on ETc, ECe, Y, fruit diameter and shoot dry weight in both environments. The applicability of Doorenbos-Kassam linear crop-water production function along with Maas-Hoffman salt tolerance model was investigated in the greenhouse and outdoor conditions. The Ky coefficient obtained for outdoor and greenhouse eggplants treatments were 0.97 and 1.03 in the first year and 0.91 and 0.93 in the second year, respectively. Higher sensitivity of greenhouse eggplants to salinity was later demonstrated for both years, obtaining higher values of b and lower values of ECethreshold in the greenhouse eggplants.


HortScience ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 801E-801
Author(s):  
Bruce P. Bordelon ◽  
Stephen C. Weller

Four cover crops were evaluated for weed control and effects on first-year vine growth. Winter wheat (cv. Cardinal), rye (cv. Wheeler), oats (cv. Ogle), and hairy vetch (no cultivar name) were either fall- or spring-planted and compared to cultivated and weedy control plots. Cover crop and weed biomass dry weight was collected twice during the growing season. Vines (Vitis labrusca cv. Steuben) were planted in the spring and destructively sampled at the end of the growing season for analysis of leaf area, leaf number, shoot length., shoot number, top growth dry weight, and root system dry weight. None of the vines in cover crop treatments had growth as good as vines in the weed-free check. Vines in the best cover crop treatments had ≈70% as much leaf area, 75% as many leaves, 50% as much shoot dry weight, and 40% as much root dry weight as vines in the weed-free check. Cover crop biomass dry weight and vine growth was greater in fall-planted plots than in spring-planted plots. Despite low cover crop biomass dry weight, spring-planted plots had few weeds (low weed biomass dry weight). However, vine growth in spring-planted plots was not significantly different than vine growth in the weedy check.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue Wang ◽  
Fei-Hai Yu ◽  
Yong Jiang ◽  
Mai-He Li

Abstract Aims Carbon and nutrient physiology of trees at their upper limits have been extensively studied, but those of shrubs at their upper limits have received much less attention. The aim of this study is to examine the general patterns of non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs), nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) in shrubs at the upper limits, and to assess whether such patterns are similar to those in trees at the upper limits. Methods Across Eurasia, we measured the concentrations of soluble sugars, starch, total NSCs, N and P in leaves, branches and fine roots (< 0.5 cm in diameter) of five shrub species growing at both the upper limits and lower elevations in both summer (peak growing season) and winter (dormancy season). Important Findings Neither elevation nor season had significant effects on tissue N and P concentrations, except for lower P concentrations in fine roots in winter than in summer. Total NSCs and soluble sugars in branches were significantly higher in winter than in summer. There were significant interactive effects between elevation and season for total NSCs, starch, soluble sugars and the ratio of soluble sugar to starch in fine roots, showing lower soluble sugars and starch in fine roots at the upper limits than at the lower elevations in winter but not in summer. These results suggest that the carbon physiology of roots in winter may play an important role in determining the upward distribution of shrubs, like that in the alpine tree-line trees.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin U. Grüebler ◽  
Johann von Hirschheydt ◽  
Fränzi Korner-Nievergelt

AbstractThe formation of an upper distributional range limit for species breeding along mountain slopes is often based on environmental gradients resulting in changing demographic rates towards high elevations. However, we still lack an empirical understanding of how the interplay of demographic parameters forms the upper range limit in highly mobile species. Here, we study apparent survival and within-study area dispersal over a 700 m elevational gradient in barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) by using 15 years of capture-mark-recapture data. Annual apparent survival of adult breeding birds decreased while breeding dispersal probability of adult females, but not males increased towards the upper range limit. Individuals at high elevations dispersed to farms situated at elevations lower than would be expected by random dispersal. These results suggest higher turn-over rates of breeding individuals at high elevations, an elevational increase in immigration and thus, within-population source-sink dynamics between low and high elevations. The formation of the upper range limit therefore is based on preference for low-elevation breeding sites and immigration to high elevations. Thus, shifts of the upper range limit are not only affected by changes in the quality of high-elevation habitats but also by factors affecting the number of immigrants produced at low elevations.


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