Effects Water Stress on Physiological Traits at Various Growth Stages of Rice

The object of this study was to determine the difference of the time course changes of transpiration, diffusion resistance and photosynthetic rate of rice at several different growth stages subjected to soil moisture stress (SMS) and recovery by irrigation. A japonica rice cultivar 'Dongjinbyeo', was grown under flooded condition in a plastic container filled with silty loam soil. At 5 main growth stages, the container was treated by SMS until initial wilting point (IWP) and then reirrigated. The duration of SMS until IWP were the longest, 13 days for tillering stage, and the shortest, 7 days for panicle initiation and meiosis stage. The transpiration rate rapidly decreased during SMS and the transpiration rate at IWP of the stressed plant showed 10∼20% compared with control, and the transpiration rate of stressed plant at most growth stages also recovered rapidly after irrigation and then reached 100% of control within a week. The shoot photosynthetic rate in all growth stages rapidly decreased by SMS, and the rates at IWP of stressed plants were de-creased nearly to 0%, beside the treatment at tillering stage. The recovery degree of photosynthetic rate by irrigation ranged from 20 to 90%, showed higher at early growth stages of SMS treatment than that of later stages. At all growth stages the leaf diffusion resistance of stressed plants was over 3 times that of the control resulting from a rapid increase at 3 to 5 days after draining for SMS, and showed quick recovery by irrigation within 3 days after drainage. The above physiological parameters changed in close relation with the decrease of the soil matric potential after SMS. These results indicate that at all main growth stages of rice plants the transpiration and photosynthesis reduction by stomatal closure reponded sensitively to the first stage of SMS closely related with decrease of soil water potential, while those recovery pattern and recovered degree by irrigation are little different by growth stage of rice.