Leaf Conductance in Relation to Rate of CO2 Assimilation

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Abstract
Rates of CO2 assimilation and leaf conductances to CO2 transfer were measured in plants of Zea mays during a period of 14 days in which the plants were not rewatered, and leaf water potential decreased from -0.5 to -8.0 bar. At any given ambient partial pressure of CO2, water stress reduced rate of assimilation and leaf conductance similarly, so that intercellular partial pressure of CO2 remained almost constant. At normal ambient partial pressure of CO2, the intercellular partial pressure of CO2 was estimated to be 95 microbars. This is the same as had been estimated in plants of Zea mays grown with various levels of nitrogen supply, phosphate supply and irradiance, and in plants of Zea mays examined at different irradiances. After leaves of Phaseolus vulgaris L. and Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieb. ex Spreng had been exposed to high irradiance in an atmosphere of CO2- free N2 with 10 millibars O2, rates of assimilation and leaf conductances measured in standard conditions had decreased in similar proportions, so that intercellular partial pressure of CO2 remained almost unchanged. As the conductance of each epidermis that had not been directly irradiated had declined as much as that in the opposite, irradiated surface it was hypothesized that conductance may have been influenced by photoinhibition within the mesophyll tissue.