Abstract
The multipurpose tree Faidherbia albida, which is highly recommended for evergreen agriculture, lacks much more recent ecophysiological data. Due to climate change global temperatures are rising; droughts are more common as water is becoming less and less available. How will plants, especially F. albida respond to these changes? We, therefore, set out to understand the effects of varied light and moisture levels. One hundred and thirty-five (135) 120-day-old seedlings were exposed to different light (75, 43 and 16% of full sunlight) and moisture [100, 50 and 25% of field capacity (32.6 ml/100 g of soil)] levels for 12 weeks. There were significant light and water main effects on most growth parameters, below ground biomass (BGB), above ground biomass (AGB), root:shoot ratio (RSR), concentration of chlorophyll b and quantum efficiency of photosystem II of the seedlings. Significant interactions were only recorded on the number of leaves (NL), stem diameter (SD), below ground biomass (BGB) and above ground biomass (AGB). The best water use efficiency, WUE (2661 ml/g), was recorded in the high-light medium-moisture (HLMM) treatment. Our results show that F. albida is affected differently by the different light and moisture levels. There also exists high stress tolerance level. We, therefore, highly recommend it for incorporation into most farming systems even when shading of seedlings constitutes a major intercropping problem.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the Erasmus Mundus Intra ACP Strengthening African Higher Education through Academic Mobility (STREAM) project for the study scholarship at the University of Buea, Cameroon and Research Modernisation Allowance from the Ministry of Higher Education (MINESUP) Cameroon.
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Communicated by T. K. Mondal.
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Chuyong, G.B., Acidri, T. Light and moisture levels affect growth and physiological parameters differently in Faidherbia albida (Delile) A. Chev. seedlings. Acta Physiol Plant 39, 117 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-017-2410-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-017-2410-0