Effect of Low Temperature on Photosynthetic Physiological Activity of Different Photoperiod Types of Strawberry Seedlings and Stress Diagnosis

Abstract

During the early growth stage of plants, low temperatures can alter cell permeability, reduce photosynthetic capacity, and have adverse effects on crop growth, development, and yield. Different strawberry cultivars have varying cold tolerance. In this study, we investigated the changes in cell permeability and photosynthetic activity of short-day and long-day types of strawberry cultivars under varying degrees of low-temperature stress, and evaluated the extent of cellular damage using photosynthetic and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. The experiment utilized short-day strawberry cultivars ‘Toyonoka’ and ‘Red Face’, and long-day strawberry cultivars ‘Selva’ and ‘Sweet Charlie’ seedlings. Low-temperature treatments were set at −20, −15, −10, −5, 0, 5, and 10 °C for 12 h. The research demonstrated that short-day strawberries had greater tolerance to low temperatures, and all four strawberry cultivars began to experience low-temperature stress when the temperature was below 5 °C. A temperature range of 0 to −10 °C played a crucial role in causing severe cold damage to the strawberries. The low-temperature stress levels were constructed based on electrolyte leakage, with photosynthetic physiological characteristics serving as references. The study proves that the photosynthetic and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters can serve as effective probes for diagnosing low-temperature stress in strawberry seedlings, and their combination provides higher accuracy in identifying stress levels than any single type of parameter.