Gallery forest is a forest formation that covers about 10% of the cerrado biome and represents about 1/3 of cerrado tree diversity in Brazil. Recent studies demonstrate the importance of gallery forest in central regions of Brazil, but little is known about the physiology and plasticity of gallery forest species in relation to environmental variability, particularly in terms of light availability. In this study we compared in situ physiological and nutritional aspects of shade and sun leaves, in ten tree species commonly found in gallery forests. Relative to shade leaves, sun leaves had higher values of CO2 assimilation rates on an area basis (Aarea), of stomatal conductance (gs), of quantum yield of Photosystem II (ΦPSIIL); and a larger fraction of PSII centers in the open state (qL), while shade leaves showed higher specific leaf area. However, shade and sun leaves did not differ in terms of leaf water potential, CO2 assimilation on a mass basis and in leaf concentrations of macronutrients. ΦPSII and gs were the main factors that influenced Aarea in sun leaves, while only ΦPSII significantly affected Aarea of shade leaves. The differences found here demonstrate that, like in other forest formations worldwide, gallery forest trees are able to acclimate to contrasting irradiance levels that typically occur in this type of environment.
gallery forest; photosynthesis; nitrogen; phosphorus; light; fluorescence; gas exchange
