Influence of irradiance on photosynthesis and PSII photochemical efficiency in maize during short-term exposure at high CO2 concentration

This work aimed to evaluate if gas exchange and PSII photochemical activity in maize are affected by different irradiance levels during short-term exposure to elevated CO2. For this purpose gas exchange and chlorophyll a fluorescence were measured on maize plants grown at ambient CO2 concentration (control CO2) and exposed for 4 h to short-term treatments at 800 μmol(CO2) mol–1 (high CO2) at a photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of either 1,000 μmol m–2 s–1 (control light) or 1,900 μmol m–2 s–1 (high light). At control light, high-CO2 leaves showed a significant decrease of net photosynthetic rate (PN) and a rise in the ratio of intercellular to ambient CO2 concentration (Ci/Ca) and water-use efficiency (WUE) compared to control CO2 leaves. No difference between CO2 concentrations for PSII effective photochemistry (ΦPSII), photochemical quenching (qp) and nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) was detected. Under high light, high-CO2 leaves did not differ in PN, Ci/Ca, ΦPSII and NPQ, but showed an increase of WUE. These results suggest that at control light photosynthetic apparatus is negatively affected by high CO2 concentration in terms of carbon gain by limitations in photosynthetic dark reaction rather than in photochemistry. At high light, the elevated CO2 concentration did not promote an increase of photosynthesis and photochemistry but only an improvement of water balance due to increased WUE.