Photosynthetic capacity, chloroplast pigments, and mineral content of the previous year's spruce needles with and without the new flush: analysis of the forest-decline phenomenon of needle bleaching.

Spruce (Picea abies) damage in the Fichtelgebirge (FRG) occurs as needle bleaching and a depression of CO2 assimilation. Such injury may primarily result from the direct, above-ground effects of air pollution or indirect, below-ground changes in mineral uptake.Typically, the new flush of spruce needles is green and exhibits high photosynthetic capacity. Mies and Zöttl concluded that the older foliage is damaged when nutrients are withdrawn to supply the current year's needles. By removing the terminal buds of single branches in the spring, we produced an experimental set of the previous year's needles with greater mineral reserves than the control needles. During the course of the growing period, the performance of the experimental needles, which lacked competition from the new flush, was compared to that of the control needles of the same age-class on intact branches with the new flush.Throughout the experiment, chloroplast pigments of a healthy control tree were not affected by the elimination of the new flush. However, the chlorophyll and carotenoid content as well as the photosynthetic capacity of the previous year's needles on those branches of a heavily damaged tree where the new flush had been eliminated increased substantially. This increase was associated with an increase in minerals, which seemed to be deficient in the control needles with the new flush. Thus, in contrast to needles of the same age-class on intact branches with undisturbed new growth in the same atmospheric environment, the experimental needles escaped bleaching and a decrease in photosynthesis. It would seem that the bleaching and the loss in photosynthetic capacity typical of trees damaged by forest decline indirectly result from nutrient deficiencies through soil environment changes and/or root damage than directly from atmospheric pollutants.