Physiological acclimation and growth response to partial shading in Salix matsudana in the Mu Us Sandland in China

In a controlled experiment, Salix matsudana plants were subjected to uniform nonshading (F-S), partial shading (P-S) and uniform shading (U-S). The shoots of the plants in the F-S and U-S treatments were referred to as H-H and L-L, respectively. The plants in the P-S treatment had two kinds of shoots: (1) shoots under the nonshading treatment that were connected to others under the shading treatment (H-L).(2) Shoots under the shading treatment that were connected to others under the nonshading treatment (L-H). The physiological acclimation and growth response of the species to the partial shading were examined. The partial shading had significant effects on photosynthetic dynamics, transpiration and stomatal conductance, but no effect on instantaneous water use efficiency and maximum quantum yield. Water saturation deficit and coefficient of water loss were. significantly smaller in the H-L shoots than in the H-H shoots. Leaf natality, leaf mortality and leaf turnover were greater in the H-L shoots than in the H-H shoots. In contrast, these three parameters were smaller in the L-H shoots than in the L-L shoots. The H-L shoots had significantly larger branching ratio, total branch length and shoot biomass than the H-H shoots. The L-H shoots had smaller branching ratio, total branch length and shoot biomass than the L-L shoots. Total plant biomass in the treatments increased as follows: F-S<P-S<U-S. Canopy productivity index was significantly higher in the P-S than in both F-S and U-S. Leaf weight ratio was also significantly affected by the light regime. These results suggest that the plants are able to respond to partial shading in their natural habitats when light is usually patchy through modifying their physiology and growth in a manner of correlative inhibition between the H-L and the L-H shoots.