Photosynthetica 2018, 56(1):455-467 | DOI: 10.1007/s11099-018-0777-9

Community-wide consequences of variation in photoprotective physiology among prairie plants

S. Kothari1,*, J. Cavender-Bares1,2,*, K. Bitan2, A. S. Verhoeven3, R. Wang4, R. A. Montgomery5, J. A. Gamon4,6,7
1 Plant Biological Sciences Program, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, USA
2 Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, USA
3 Department of Biology, University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, USA
4 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
5 Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, USA
6 Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA
7 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Photoprotective pigments, like those involved in the xanthophyll cycle, help plants avoid oxidative damage caused by excess radiation. This study aims to characterize a spectrum of strategies used to cope with light stress by a diverse group of prairie plants at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (East Bethel, MN). We find that concentrations of photosynthetic and photoprotective pigments are highly correlated with one another and with other physiological traits across species and over time, and tend to be phylogenetically conserved. During a period of water limitation, plots dominated by species with constitutively low pigment concentrations showed a greater decline in mean reflectance and photochemical reflectance index, a reflectance-based indicator of photoprotective physiology, possibly due to alterations in canopy structure. Our findings suggest two contrasting strategies for withstanding light stress: (1) Using photoprotective pigments to dissipate excess energy, and (2) altering canopy structure to minimize absorbance of excess radiation.

Additional key words: drought; light-use efficiency; phenology; photoinhibition; trait covariance; water-use efficiency

Received: July 1, 2017; Accepted: November 6, 2017; Published: March 1, 2018  Show citation

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Kothari, S., Cavender-Bares, J., Bitan, K., Verhoeven, A.S., Wang, R., Montgomery, R.A., & Gamon, J.A. (2018). Community-wide consequences of variation in photoprotective physiology among prairie plants. Photosynthetica, 56(SPECIAL ISSUE), 455-467. doi: 10.1007/s11099-018-0777-9
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