Warming effect on thermal tolerance and photosynthetic performance of paramo plants

Paramos, as all tropical ecosystems are expected to have narrow thermal tolerance and limited acclimation capacity due to the constant climatic conditions of the tropics all year. Although this may be truth for tropical lowland species, high mountain tropical species are normally exposed to high diurnal variation in temperature, so they could have evolved broader thermal tolerance and higher acclimation potential than tropical lowland species. Given the lack of information on thermal tolerance and acclimation potential to increasing temperatures in paramo plants we can't yet predict what their vulnerability to climate change will be. In this study we evaluated the thermal tolerance of 15 paramo species and the acclimation capacity to warming in an in situ warming experiment using open top chambers (OTC). Thermal tolerance was evaluated using chlorophyll a fluorescence, observing the decline on Fv/Fm after heating or cooling leaf disks at different temperatures. The highest temperature causing 50% reduction of Fv/Fm indicates the species critical thermal maximum (CTmax)...

• Autores: León García, Indira Vanessa
• Fecha de publicación: 2017
• Institución: Universidad de los Andes
• Repositorio: Séneca: repositorio Uniandes
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.uniandes.edu.co:1992/34281
• Acceso en línea: http://hdl.handle.net/1992/34281
• Palabra clave: Ecología de páramos - Investigaciones - Parque Ecológico Matarredonda (Colombia); Ecología vegetal - Investigaciones - Parque Ecológico Matarredonda (Colombia); Fotosíntesis - Investigaciones - Parque Ecológico Matarredonda (Colombia); Biología
• Rights: openAccess
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/