Seasonal photosynthetic gas exchange and water-use efficiency in a constitutive CAM plant, the giant saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea)

@article{Bronson2011SeasonalPG,
  title={Seasonal photosynthetic gas exchange and water-use efficiency in a constitutive CAM plant, the giant saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea)},
  author={Dustin R. Bronson and Nathan B English and David L. Dettman and David G. Williams},
  journal={Oecologia},
  year={2011},
  volume={167},
  pages={861-871}
}
Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) and the capacity to store large quantities of water are thought to confer high water use efficiency (WUE) and survival of succulent plants in warm desert environments. Yet the highly variable precipitation, temperature and humidity conditions in these environments likely have unique impacts on underlying processes regulating photosynthetic gas exchange and WUE, limiting our ability to predict growth and survival responses of desert CAM plants to climate change… 
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Seasonal controls on ecosystem-scale CO2 and energy exchange in a Sonoran Desert characterized by the saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea)
TLDR
The ecosystem showed large (fivefold) seasonal variation in maximum photosynthesis and ecosystem respiration rate at 10 °C that corresponded to seasonal variationIn precipitation and temperature, and recorded a net loss of 10 g C m−2 year−1, which was likely caused by below normal annual precipitation during the study.
Gas exchange characteristics of giant cacti species varying in stem morphology and life history strategy.
TLDR
The results add to a growing body of evidence that succulent-stemmed plants function along a similar economic spectrum as leaf-bearing plants such that functional traits including stem RGR, longevity, morphology, and gas exchange are correlated across species with varying life-history strategies.
Contribution of stem CO2 fixation to whole-plant carbon balance in nonsucculent species
TLDR
Stem net photosynthesis (SNP) is proposed, which includes net CO2 fixation by stems with stomata in the epidermis and net corticularCO2 fixation in suberized stems, and stem recycling photoynthesis (SRP), which defines CO2 ling in su berized stems.
Functional trade-offs in succulent stems predict responses to climate change in columnar cacti.
TLDR
It is proposed that variation in photosynthetic gas exchange, growth, and response to stress is highly constrained by stem V:S, establishing a mechanistic framework for understanding the sensitivity of columnar cacti to climate change and drought.
Carbon dioxide exchange over multiple temporal scales in an arid shrub ecosystem near La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Arid environments represent 30% of the global terrestrial surface, but are largely under‐represented in studies of ecosystem carbon flux. Less than 2% of all FLUXNET eddy covariance sites exist in a…
Dominant Trees in a Subtropical Forest Respond to Drought Mainly via Adjusting Tissue Soluble Sugar and Proline Content
TLDR
Comparison between the drought treatments for each species indicated that the trees responded species-specific to the short-term and prolonged drought, with S. superba exhibiting larger plasticity and higher adaption than M. macclurei.
Giant cacti - isotopic recorders of climate variation in warm deserts of the Americas.
TLDR
This work reviews the opportunities, challenges and pitfalls in measuring δ13C, δ2H and δ18O ratios captured in spine tissues and describes how the analysis of all three isotopes can be used in combination to provide potentially robust analysis of photosynthetic function in cacti, and other succulent-stemmed taxa across broad spatio-temporal environmental gradients.
Stable isotope physiology of stem succulents across a broad range of volume-to-surface area ratio
TLDR
Examination of intrinsic physiological tradeoffs across diverse stem morphologies in three divergent evolutionary groups where stem succulence is common suggests that physiological tradeoff associated with stem V:S are detectable across broad evolutionary groups despite differences in CAM strength.
Could land‐based early photosynthesizing ecosystems have bioengineered the planet in mid‐Palaeozoic times?
The Ordovician and Silurian periods were times of major geological activity as regards palaeogeography, volcanism and climate change, the last of these evidenced by a series of cooling episodes and…
The Physiological Effect of a Holoparasite Over a Cactus Along an Environmental Gradient
TLDR
The data revealed that E. chiloensis response to T. aphyllus infection is sensitive to environmental changes in a way that could be strongly impacted by the desertification projected for this area due to climate change.
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