Carbon isotope composition and water-use efficiency in plants with crassulacean acid metabolism
Klaus Winter A C , Jorge Aranda A and Joseph A. M. Holtum A BA Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 2072, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama.
B School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: winterk@tivoli.si.edu
D This paper originates from a presentation at the IVth International Congress on Crassulacean Acid Metabolism, Tahoe City, California, USA, July–August 2004
Functional Plant Biology 32(5) 381-388 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP04123
Submitted: 12 July 2004 Accepted: 17 November 2004 Published: 27 May 2005
Abstract
The relationship between water-use efficiency, measured as the transpiration ratio (g H2O transpired g–1 above- plus below-ground dry mass accumulated), and 13C / 12C ratio (expressed as δ13C value) of bulk biomass carbon was compared in 15 plant species growing under tropical conditions at two field sites in the Republic of Panama. The species included five constitutive crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) species [Aloe vera (L.) Webb & Berth., Ananas comosus (L.) Merr., Euphorbia tirucalli L., Kalanchoë daigremontiana Hamet et Perr., Kalanchoë pinnata (Lam.) Pers.], two species of tropical C3 trees (Tectona grandis Linn. f. and Swietenia macrophylla King), one C4 species (Zea mays L.), and seven arborescent species of the neotropical genus Clusia, of which two exhibited pronounced CAM. The transpiration ratios of the C3 and CAM species, which ranged between 496 g H2O g–1 dry mass in the C3–CAM species Clusia pratensis Seeman to 54 g H2O g–1 dry mass in the constitutive CAM species Aloe vera, correlated strongly with δ13C values and nocturnal CO2 gain suggesting that δ13C value can be used to estimate both water-use efficiency and the proportion of CO2 gained by CAM species during the light and the dark integrated over the lifetime of the tissues.
Keywords: C3 photosynthesis, C4 photosynthesis, carbon-isotope ratio, crassulacean acid metabolism, transpiration ratio, water-use efficiency.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the assistance of M. Garcia, R. Nuñez and A. Virgo. The study was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. JAMH was funded by a Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship and the JCU Special Studies Program and was supported by Dr RG Dunn.
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