Photosynthetic acclimation to variability in the light environment of early and late successional plants

Fourteen plant species from early-, mid-, and late-successional habitats were grown for a period of 25 to 50 days in each of two light environments, i.e. full sunlight and in deep shade. The rate of photosynthesis for newly formed leaves was measured as a function of light intensity for plants from each light environment. Photosynthetic flexibility, measured as the difference in response between sun- and shade-grown plants, was determined for each of 5 parameters including dark respiration, quantum yield, light compensation, half-saturating irradiance for photosynthesis, and the photosynthetic rate at 1,400 μE m^-2 s^-1. We found photosynthetic flexibility to be high for early successional annuals, intermediate for midsuccessional species, and low for late successional species.