• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.264-271
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to determine the growth and light utilization efficiency of garden plants in shade area through chlorophyll fluorescence reaction analysis. Ten garden plants was grown for 75 days under 50% and 80% shading conditions. Under shading, $ET2_O/RC$, the fluorescence parameter related to electron-transport in photosystem II, was effectively enhanced. However, the electron transport flux until PSI acceptors per reaction center ($RE1_O/RC$) was reduced. These changes in photochemical parameters evoked a decrease in performance index (PI) and driving force (DF) of electron transport flux. In addition, some photochemical parameters such as $F_V$, $FV/F_O$, $RE1_O/RC$, $ET2_O/RC$, $PI_{TOTAL\;ABS}$, and $DF_{TOTAL\;ABS}$ were found to be important for shade tolerance. Three species (Pachysandra terminalis Siebold & Zucc, Physostegia virginiana L., and Carex maculata Bott) were found to be shade tolerant. Based on these results, shading factor index (SFI) deduced from photochemical parameters is useful for evaluating of shading stress of garden plants.