Effects of Photon Flux Density on Nutrient Productivity in Eucalyptus grandis Seedlings

Abstract

In plants in which growth is limited by the availability of phosphorus, phosphorus productivity is defined as the plants' relative growth rate divided by their internal phosphorus concentration. An experiment was conducted to assess whether phosphorus productivity was dependent on photon flux density, or whether photon flux density only set an upper maximum relative growth rate below which phosphorus productivity remained constant with changing photon flux density.

Eucalyptus grandis seedlings were grown in growth units in which plants were suspended in air while continuously being sprayed with nutrient solution (aeroponic system). Plants were grown at five different relative phosphorus addition rates, and under natural lighting over the period from late summer to mid-winter when daily photon flux density decreased from about 30 to 10 mol quanta m^-2 d^-1. Relative growth rate was then plotted as a function of internal phosphorus concentration for a series of harvests. For the three highest relative phosphorus addition rates, there was a negative relationship between relative growth rate and internal phosphorus concentration. For the two lowest phosphorus addition rates, the internal phosphorus concentration increased throughout the experiment, while relative growth rate remained almost constant. This meant that phosphorus productivity changed throughout the experiment. When phosphorus productivity was expressed as a function of daily photon flux density, a linear relationship between phosphorus productivity and photon flux density was obtained. That relationship had a positive intercept on the axis of photon flux density which was interpreted as the plants' light compensation point. This finding has important implications for applications of the concept of nutrient productivity to the modelling of ecosystems in which growth is limited by nutrient availability.