Quantity of supplementary LED lightings regulates photosynthetic apparatus, improves photosynthetic capacity and enhances productivity of Cos lettuce grown in a tropical greenhouse

Abstract

Although cooling their rootzone allows year-round (temperate) vegetable production in Singapore's warm climate, these crops have frequently experienced increasingly unpredictable cloudy and hazy weather. Supplementary lighting with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) could be used to reduce the impacts of low light intensity. This study investigated the responses of temperate Cos lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) to different quantities (photosynthetic photon flux density, PPFD of 0, 150, 300 µmol m⁻² s⁻¹) of supplementary LED lightings in the tropical greenhouse. Increasing light intensity significantly increased total leaf area, shoot and root fresh weight (FW) and dry weight (DW), total chlorophyll (Chl) and carotenoids (Car) contents, light-saturated photosynthetic CO₂ assimilation rate (A_sat) and transpiration rate (T_r). There were no significant differences in F_v/F_m ratio, total reduced nitrogen, specific leaf area (SLA) and PSII concentration among the three light treatments. However, there was an increasing trend with increasing light intensity for Chl a/b ratio, net photosynthetic O₂ evolution rate (P_N), cytochrome b₆f (Cyt b₆f), leaf total soluble protein and Rubisco concentrations. This study provides the basic understanding of photosynthetic apparatus and capacity of temperate crops grown under different supplementary LED lightings in the tropical greenhouse.