Effects of leaf display on light interception and apparent photosynthesis in two contrasting Populus cultivars during...

Effects of the contrasting leaf display of poplar cultivars Eugenei (Populus x euramericana) and Tristis (P. tristis x P. balsamifera) on light interception and photosynthesis were studied in the second year of growth in an irrigated plantation near Rhinelander, Wisconsin, USA (lat. 45 degrees N). Leaves on the current terminal (CT) and on proleptic branches were measured between 0900 and 1500 h on five clear days from June to September 1980. Leaf orientation-based differences between these cultivars were evident as the second growing season progressed and the crowns of the trees in the plantation grew together. Leaves of Eugenei are erectophile or tilted from the horizontal. In this cultivar light penetrated throughout the crown; many leaves on the lowest branches were illuminated as fully as those on the upper CT and had higher photosynthetic rates than equivalent leaves in Tristis. However, by early September many of the lower branches on Eugenei trees had abscised. In the planophile Tristis, adaxial photon flux densities (PPFD) of leaves on the lower portion of the CT and on branches were only a fraction of those measured on the upper CT. This pattern became more extreme as the season progressed. Few of the lower branches of Tristis abscised during the growing season. Photosynthesis rates, especially on a whole-leaf basis, were closely related to incident PPFDs in both cultivars. The ecological significance of these results are discussed, as well as the hypothesized effect of leaf inclination on crop productivity.