Comparative Flooding Tolerance of Typha Latifolia and Phalaris Arundinacea in Wetland Restoration: Insights from Photosynthetic CO Response Curves, Photobiology and Biomass Allocation

Tall helophytes such as and often rapidly colonise after rewetting of former agricultural soil and are therefore often the first plants to contribute to the soil carbon pool. In this study we carried out a mesocosm experiment where these two species grew at three different water levels relative to the soil surface (-15 cm, 0 cm, +15 cm). After eight weeks' growth, measurements of photosynthetic CO-response curves, stomatal conductance and chlorophyll fluorescence of photosystem II were carried out to detect flooding stress. After 10 weeks' growth, the plants were harvested and biomass production, biomass allocation and specific leaf area were determined. had a higher and more stable photosynthetic performance across all water level treatments, which resulted in an overall higher aboveground and belowground production than . In contrast, and decreased by 41 % and 42 %, respectively from drained to flooded conditions with signs of flooding stress as impairment of the photosynthetic apparatus. Moreover, increasing water level resulted in maintenance of aboveground organs for but a decrease in allocation to belowground organs. did not invest in a higher specific leaf area to counter the decreased photosynthesis under flooding. From -15 cm to 0 cm water levels, showed a 68 % reduction in belowground biomass, which has negative implication for carbon retention immediately after rewetting. In contrast, recolonization of is likely to be a suitable contributor to the soil carbon pool due to its stable physiology and high above- and belowground biomass production at all water depths, and also likely under natural water level fluctuations. We showed that even though both species are generally considered wetland plants, they are likely to support considerably different photosynthetic carbon assimilation and soil carbon sequestration rates.