Document Type

Research Poster

Publication Date

12-4-2018

Abstract

In the Santa Monica Mountains, there are two main vegetation types: chaparral, which makes up __% of plants in these mountains, and coastal sagebrush, which makes up __%. Despite California’s acute environmental stress, both of these plants manage to survive, and even thrive in some cases. We were interested in seeing if in spite of these vast anatomical and physiological differences, these plants were able to survive at similar health rates, measured in photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and electron transport rate (ETR). We have decided to choose 2 plants from 2 different leaf types of different vegetation types: Malosma laurina with sclerophyllous leaves and Encelia californica with non sclerophyllous leaves. Using LI-6400XT, we were able to measure photosynthetic rates, ETR, and conductance rate. We hypothesized that the non sclerophyllous leaf plant would have a higher photosynthetic rate than the sclerophyllous plant due to its lack of waxy coating allowing for greater passage of gases for gas exchange, which results in a higher overall photosynthetic rate.

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