Temperature responses of photosynthesis and respiration in a sub-Antarctic megaherb from Heard Island
Marcus Schortemeyer A C , John R. Evans A , Dan Bruhn A D , Dana M. Bergstrom B and Marilyn C. Ball A E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Plant Science Division, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
B Australian Antarctic Division, Department of the Environment, 203 Channel Highway, Kingston, Tas. 7050, Australia.
C Present address: Plant Biosecurity, Department of Agriculture, 7 London Circuit, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
D Present address: Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK76AA, UK.
E Corresponding author. Email: marilyn.ball@anu.edu.au
Functional Plant Biology 42(6) 552-564 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP14134
Submitted: 5 May 2014 Accepted: 12 February 2015 Published: 17 April 2015
Abstract
Understanding the response of sub-Antarctic plants to a warming climate requires an understanding of the relationship of carbon gain and loss to temperature. In a field study on Heard Island, we investigated the responses of photosynthesis and respiration of the sub-Antarctic megaherb Pringlea antiscorbutica R. Br. to temperature. This was done by instantaneously manipulating leaf temperature in a gas exchange cuvette on plants adapted to natural temperature variation along an altitudinal gradient. There was little altitudinal variation in the temperature response of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis was much less responsive to temperature than electron transport, suggesting that Rubisco activity was generally the rate-limiting process. The temperature response of leaf respiration rates was greater in cold-grown (high altitude) plants compared with warm-grown (low altitude) plants. This thermal acclimation would enable plants to maintain a positive carbon budget over a greater temperature range.
Additional keywords: acclimation, climate change, Kerguelen cabbage, Pringlea antiscorbutica, nitrogen, warming.
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