title: Leaf gas films, underwater photosynthesis and plant species distributions in a flood gradient.
abstract: Traits for survival during flooding of terrestrial plants include stimulation or inhibition of shoot elongation, aerenchyma formation and efficient gas exchange. Leaf gas films form on superhydrophobic cuticles during submergence and enhance underwater gas exchange. The main hypothesis tested was that the presence of leaf gas films influences the distribution of plant species along a natural flood gradient. We conducted laboratory experiments and field observations on species distributed along a natural flood gradient. We measured presence or absence of leaf gas films and specific leaf area of 95 species. We also measured, gas film retention time during submergence and underwater net photosynthesis and dark respiration of 25 target species. The presence of a leaf gas film was inversely correlated to flood frequency and duration and reached a maximum value of 80% of the species in the rarely flooded locations. This relationship was primarily driven by grasses that all, independently of their field location along the flood gradient, possess gas films when submerged. Although the present study and earlier experiments have shown that leaf gas films enhance gas exchange of submerged plants, the ability of species to form leaf gas films did not show the hypothesized relationship with species composition along the flood gradient.
authors: School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009, Western Australia, Australia.|Freshwater Biological Laboratory, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 4, 3rd floor, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors: Anders
authors: A
authors: Winkel
authors: Experimental Plant Ecology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors: Eric J W
authors: 0000-0002-4763-3775
authors: EJ
authors: Visser
authors: School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009, Western Australia, Australia.
authors: Timothy D
authors: TD
authors: Colmer
authors: Freshwater Biological Laboratory, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 4, 3rd floor, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors: Klaus P
authors: KP
authors: Brodersen
authors: Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors: Laurentius A C J
authors: LA
authors: Voesenek
authors: Freshwater Biological Laboratory, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 4, 3rd floor, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors: Kaj
authors: K
authors: Sand-Jensen
authors: School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009, Western Australia, Australia.|Freshwater Biological Laboratory, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 4, 3rd floor, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.|Institute of Advanced Studies, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009, Western Australia, Australia.
authors: Ole
authors: O
authors: Pedersen
mesh_terms: D019069:Cell Respiration; D017753:Ecosystem; D055868:Floods; D005740:Gases / Q000378:metabolism*; D009426:Netherlands; D010788:Photosynthesis; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000378:metabolism*; D045483:Rivers
chemical_list: D005740:Gases
keywords: air films; flooding tolerance; leaf respiration; leaf traits; specific leaf area; submergence tolerance; superhydrophobicity; underwater gas exchange