Growth of provenances of Cryptocarya alba during water stress and after rewatering in the nursery
Meza, Sergio Enrique EspinozaArce, Marco Aliro YáñezDíaz, Carlos Renato MagniHerrera, Eduardo Enrique MartínezOrtega, Juan Francisco OvalleMiranda, Suraj Antonio Vaswani
ABSTRACT: Intensification of drought in Mediterraneantype climates has limited seedling establishment. The knowledge of the ecology of selected species and its intraspecific variation to water stress at the seedling stage should be considered in order to overcome limitations. We investigated variations in growth, survival, and leaflevel physiology in four provenances of the endemic Cryptocarya alba (Mol.) during water stress and after rewatering. Seedlings were cultured in the nursery during 23 months and then subjected to two watering treatments based on soil water content (wellwatered and water restriction, 0.38 and 0.17 cm3 cm3, respectively) for 45 days. At the end of the watering treatments, seedling growth, above and belowground biomass, survival, and leaf gas exchange were measured. Right after the watering treatments, the surviving seedlings were submitted to a recovery period of 21 days, in which all seedlings were rewatered at 0.38 cm3 cm3 of soil water content and measured for leaf gas exchange. Provenances differed in growth and biomass allocation. Unlike growth and biomass, interaction between provenance and watering treatments was found for photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, and water use efficiency of northern provenances, exhibiting the highest performance under water restriction. However, most variations observed occurred before the rewatering period and only a few occurred after this period. The four provenances under study exhibited similar photosynthesis and stomatal conductance after rewatering. Our study demonstrated phenotypic variation of C. alba and the capability of the species to withstand and recover from water stress.
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