Diurnal variations in gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence quenching and light allocation in soybean leaves: The cause for midday depression in CO2 assimilation

Gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence quenching analysis were carried out to investigate the diurnal variations in photosynthesis and light allocation in leaves of soybean. Leaf net CO2 assimilation rate showed a bimodal diurnal pattern and midday depression of CO2 assimilation was observed at 13:00 h. Depression in CO2 assimilation at midday was mostly attributed to non-stomatal limitation since the reduction in net CO2 assimilation rate was not followed by significant reductions in stomatal conductance and intracellular CO2 concentration. Midday depression in CO2 assimilation was found to be associated with reversible inactivation of photosystem II reaction centers and increases of antenna heat dissipation and photorespiration in response to the high light intensity. It is likely that PS II down-regulation, heat dissipation and photorespiration co-operated together to prevent the chloroplast from photodamage.