Controlled experiment demonstrates decreased photosynthetic capacity in tomato plants under progressive drought stress, highlighting both stomatal and nonstomatal limitations.
Drought has become an important factor limiting crop yields in China. As an important greenhouse horticultural crop in China, the research of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Jinpeng No.10) is of great theoretical and practical significance. In the study, four different relative soil moisture contents (74% to 80%, 55% to 61%, 47% to 52%, and 25% to 30%) were used to induce drought stress. We investigated changes in photosynthetic gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, and other related physiological parameters in response to different relative soil moisture contents. Drought inhibited the photosynthesis of tomato significantly, as shown by a clear decline in the net photosynthetic rate. Our results indicated stomatal limitation and nonstomatal limitation were responsible for the photosynthesis reduction.
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Liang et al. (2019) studied this question.