Transpiration, Intracellular Carbon Dioxide Concentration and Carbon-Isotope Discrimination of 24 Wild Species Differing in Relative Growth Rate

Abstract

Various aspects of the water economy were investigated for a range of herbaceous species varying in relative growth rate. Plants were grown in a growth chamber with a non-limiting supply of water and nutrients, and the rate of transpiration, short-term intercellular CO₂ concentration and long-term carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) in the leaves were determined. No correlation was found between the relative growth rate of these species, and the transpiration rate per unit leaf area, the intercellular CO₂ concentration and the ¹³C-discrimination. There was a positive correlation, however, with the rate of water uptake per unit root weight. From these observations we infer that the previously observed differences in photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency, the rate of photosynthesis per unit leaf nitrogen, can not be explained by variation in intercellular CO₂ concentration.

These data were also used to analyse correlations between Δ and both growth parameters and chemical composition. Apart from parameters related to the water economy, Δ only correlated (positively) with the fractional biomass allocation to the roots (root weight ratio) and the specific root length (root length divided by root weight), and not with any other investigated growth parameters.