Water-stress and N-nutrition effects on photosynthesis and growth of Brassica carinata

Effects of water and nitrogen (N) supply on growth and photosynthetic response of B. carinata were examined in this study. Plant growth and related characteristics varied significantly in response to the availability of water and nitrogen. B. carinata maximized the utilization efficiency of the most limiting resources by developing physiological adaptations, such as changes in root and leaf development. The utilization of water and N was tightly linked with the availability of each resource. Instantaneous water-use efficiency (WUE) was always greater in plants with high-N nutrition [50, 100, and 150 kg(N) ha−1] than in the low-N-treated plants [0 kg(N) ha−1] in all watering treatments. Instantaneous N-use efficiency (PNUE) decreased significantly with increasing water stress in all N treatments. Seed yield is significantly related to PNUE (p>0.05) but not WUE (p<0.05). The positive relationship between leaf net photosynthetic rate (P N) and seed yield suggests that P N can be used as an important tool for selection of new strains with high seed yield.