Gas Exchange Characteristics of the Submerged Aquatic Crassulacean Acid Metabolism Plant, Isoetes howellii

Abstract

The submerged aquatic plant Isoetes howellii Engelmann possesses Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) comparable to that known from terrestrial CAM plants. Infrared gas analysis of submerged leaves showed Isoetes was capable of net CO(2) uptake in both light and dark. CO(2) uptake rates were a function of CO(2) levels in the medium. At 2,500 microliters CO(2) per liter (gas phase, equivalent to 1.79 milligrams per liter aqueous phase), Isoetes leaves showed continuous uptake in both the light and dark. At this CO(2) level, photosynthetic rates were light saturated at about 10% full sunlight and were about 3-fold greater than dark CO(2) uptake rates. In the dark, CO(2) uptake rates were also a function of length of time in the night period. Measurements of dark CO(2) uptake showed that, at both 2,500 and 500 microliters CO(2) per liter, rates declined during the night period. At the higher CO(2) level, dark CO(2) uptake rates at 0600 h were 75% less than at 1800 h. At 500 microliters CO(2) per liter, net CO(2) uptake in the dark at 1800 h was replaced by net CO(2) evolution in the dark at 0600 h. At both CO(2) levels, the overnight decline in net CO(2) uptake was marked by periodic bursts of accelerated CO(2) uptake. CO(2) uptake in the light was similar at 1% and 21% O(2), and this held for leaves intact as well as leaves split longitudinally. Estimating the contribution of light versus dark CO(2) uptake to the total carbon gain is complicated by the diurnal flux in CO(2) availability under field conditions.