Does shading mitigate water restriction in Ormosia arborea seedlings?

Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the potential of shading in reducing the stressful effect of water restriction on photosynthetic and antioxidant metabolism, favoring the growth of Ormosia arborea seedlings and the recovery metabolic. The shadings levels studied were: 0, 30 and 70%. Two water regimes were implemented: control, in which the plants were irrigated at 75% of soil water retention capacity and water restriction, in which the irrigation was suspended until the photosynthetic rate reached values close to zero (P0), period at which the seedlings were re-irrigated. There were two evaluation periods: P0 and recovery. We observed that water restriction reduced photosynthetic metabolism, growth and quality of O. arborea seedlings by increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes. The seedlings present higher quality index, stomatal conductance, intrinsic carboxylation efficiency and transpiration when cultivated under 70% shading in recovery. The stressful effect of water restriction was mitigated by the shading of 70%, where the seedlings were able to recover, resuming their photosynthetic metabolism and quality after resumption of irrigation. In addition, 0% shading is not indicated for this species.