Intercâmbio gasoso e relações hídricas de duas espécies de Combretum no Pantanal mato-grossense

Abstract

The North Pantanal of Mato Grosso is characterized by four seasonal periods: the flood, full, the ebb and dry. These periods determine an intense variation in water availability and the degree of oxygenation of the soil of the region, acting as a selective filter that allows only the species with adaptability able to survive there. Considering these aspects, the aim of this study was to analyze the adaptive capacity of two species of the genus Combretum, C. lanceolatum Pohl ex Eickl and C. laxum Jacq, listed as invasive species in the region. Two physiological aspects were taken into account in this assessment, the gas exchange and water relations. For both aspects analyzed were measured variables inherent in each of the four seasonal periods. For gas exchange, measurement was performed using a portable infrared gas analyzer, Model LI-6400 (Li-COR Inc., Lincoln, NE, USA) and water relations analysis was used a pressure type pump Scholander. It was observed that the seasonality, affected in a particular way the gas exchange of the species studied. Although both species occur extensively in the Pantanal, which in itself is an indicator of the adaptability of the same location, the physiological strategies adopted by them are different. Carbon assimilation of view, while the ebb period causes a reduction in photosynthetic rate of C. lanceolatum, is the dry season, which causes the same effect on C. laxum. While the reduction in net photosynthetic rate in C. laxum may be associated with a stomatal effect because this period, regardless of species, when there is the lowest value of stomatal conductance; for C. lanceolatum the reduction must be more related to aspects not stomatal. In water relations noted that the resaturation capacity of both species with varied seasonally, being more effective during flood periods and full and less effective during ebb tide and dried. Both species showed no significant changes in relative water content at full turgor and bulk modulus of elasticity of the cell wall. Changes in osmotic potential at full turgor and swelling incipient not clearly reveal the search for a seasonal adjustment of these variables. Apparently, the relative constancy of variable water relations values observed for both species along seasonal periods suggests an adaptation to any extreme variation in water availability in the environment.