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Photosynthesis in Bryophytes and Early Land Plants pp 151–171Cite as

Scaling Light Harvesting from Moss “Leaves” to Canopies

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Part of the book series: Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration ((AIPH,volume 37))

Summary

This review provides an overview of chemical, anatomical and morphological changes in bryophytes in response to changes in light availability and assesses the role of these changes in altering bryophyte canopy performance. As a key chemical change, the concentration of chlorophyll increases in response to reduced light availability. Apart from light, within-canopy patterns in chlorophyll are importantly driven by the age of foliage that increases with decreasing light availability, resulting in reduced foliage chlorophyll contents in lower light. In addition, foliage is less strongly aggregated and the density of plants decreases in lower light resulting in greater efficiency of light interception per unit leaf area formed. There is large species variability in canopy architecture, accompanied by species differences in light gradients. Species also differ in structural acclimation to within-canopy light gradients. The species forming new leaves and branches from lateral buds and extending existing lateral branches, in particular, pleurocarpous mosses, can structurally adapt to reductions in light during moss growth, while non-branching, in particular, acrocarpous mosses, are inherently less plastic in their acclimation to light. The degree of aggregation also depends importantly on moss water content with greater degree of aggregation under low water availability, suggesting that changes in aggregation play a dual role in enhancing light interception under wet conditions and decreasing light harvesting under dry conditions.

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Abbreviations

\( {\overline{A}}_{\text{L}}\) :

– average leaf area;

A M :

– moss leaf area per shoot section mass;

A S :

– leaf area on the shoot;

\( {\overline{F}}_{\text{N}}\) :

– average number of leaves on the stem;

h :

– depth in the canopy;

k(θ):

– canopy extinction coefficient (Eq. 9.1);

k depth :

– apparent light extinction coefficient characterizing reduction in R Q with canopy depth (h);

L :

– canopy leaf area index;

L C :

– cumulative leaf area index from the canopy top to given location in the canopy;

N S :

– number of shoots per area (shoot density);

Q :

– photosynthetic quantum flux density at given location in the canopy;

Q 0 :

– Q at canopy top;

R Q :

– relative quantum flux density (transmittance of light from canopy top to given position in the canopy, Q/Q 0);

S :

– shoot area index;

S c :

– cumulative shoot area index;

Ω:

– clumping index (Eq. 9.2);

ζ:

– leaf absorptance;

θ:

– solar zenith angle;

χA :

– chlorophyll content per leaf area;

χM :

– chlorophyll content per leaf dry mass

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Acknowledgements

Authors work on mosses has been supported by the Estonian Ministry of Science and Education (grant IUT 8-3), and the European Commission through European Regional Fund (the Center of Excellence in Environmental Adaptation).

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  1. Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 1, Tartu, 51014, Estonia

    Ülo Niinemets & Mari Tobias

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  1. Ülo Niinemets
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Correspondence to Ülo Niinemets .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

    David T. Hanson

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Union College, Schenectady, New York, USA

    Steven K. Rice

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Niinemets, Ü., Tobias, M. (2014). Scaling Light Harvesting from Moss “Leaves” to Canopies. In: Hanson, D., Rice, S. (eds) Photosynthesis in Bryophytes and Early Land Plants. Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration, vol 37. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6988-5_9

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