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.