Abstract
Drought is a major constraint on Cannabis sativa productivity and cannabinoid yield, yet the physiological mechanisms underlying genotypic variation in drought responses remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that (i) more vigorous genotypes would sustain higher photosynthetic rates, (ii) drought would constrain photosynthesis through both diffusional and non-diffusional limitations, and (iii) water deficits would alter cannabinoid production in a genotype-dependent manner. To test these hypotheses, two contrasting genotypes (one tetrahydrocannabinol- (THC) dominant and another cannabidiol- (CBD) dominant) were grown under greenhouse conditions, with water deficit imposed at early flowering. Water deficit induced neither osmotic nor elastic adjustment in either genotype. Although CBD plants accumulated more biomass, they did not exhibit higher photosynthetic rates under well-watered conditions. Under drought, THC plants relied primarily on stomatal regulation, whereas CBD plants showed additional nonstomatal impairments, resulting in stronger declines in photosynthesis. Despite contrasting photoprotective adjustments, both genotypes converged to similar oxidative damage, suggesting that photoprotection was not decisive for their physiological divergence. At the agronomic level, THC plants maintained a higher harvest index under drought, greater baseline cannabinoid concentrations, and inflorescence biomass with higher energetic value. In CBD plants, drought-induced reductions in cannabinoid content and harvest index largely reflected greater photosynthetic impairment and less efficient carbon use. Overall, the resilience of C. sativa to drought imposed at early flowering appears to depend less on hydraulic stability and more on sustaining photosynthetic performance, secondary metabolism, and efficient biomass partitioning. These traits represent key targets for breeding genotypes better adapted to cultivation under increasingly variable water availability.
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The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
CBD-dominant plants accumulated more biomass than THC-dominant plants.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Material
- CBD plantse0
- Outcome
- biomasse0
- Direction
- accumulated moree0
- Setting
- greenhouse conditionse1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“Although CBD plants accumulated more biomass, they did not exhibit higher photosynthetic rates under well-watered conditions”
e1“two contrasting genotypes (one tetrahydrocannabinol- (THC) dominant and another cannabidiol- (CBD) dominant) were grown under greenhouse conditions, with water deficit imposed at early flowering”
Claim · model-written summary
CBD-dominant plants did not show higher photosynthetic rates than THC-dominant plants under well-watered conditions.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Material
- CBD plantse0
- Treatment
- well-watered conditionse0
- Outcome
- photosynthetic ratese0
- Direction
- did not exhibit highere0
- Setting
- greenhouse conditionse1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“Although CBD plants accumulated more biomass, they did not exhibit higher photosynthetic rates under well-watered conditions”
e1“two contrasting genotypes (one tetrahydrocannabinol- (THC) dominant and another cannabidiol- (CBD) dominant) were grown under greenhouse conditions, with water deficit imposed at early flowering”
Claim · model-written summary
Under drought, photosynthesis declined more strongly in CBD-dominant plants than in THC-dominant plants.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Material
- CBD plantse0
- Treatment
- Under droughte0
- Outcome
- photosynthesise0
- Direction
- stronger declinese0
- Comparator
- THC plantse0
- Setting
- greenhouse conditionse1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“Under drought, THC plants relied primarily on stomatal regulation, whereas CBD plants showed additional nonstomatal impairments, resulting in stronger declines in photosynthesis”
e1“two contrasting genotypes (one tetrahydrocannabinol- (THC) dominant and another cannabidiol- (CBD) dominant) were grown under greenhouse conditions, with water deficit imposed at early flowering”
Claim · model-written summary
Under drought, THC-dominant plants relied primarily on stomatal regulation.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Material
- THC plantse0
- Treatment
- Under droughte0
- Outcome
- stomatal regulatione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“Under drought, THC plants relied primarily on stomatal regulation, whereas CBD plants showed additional nonstomatal impairments, resulting in stronger declines in photosynthesis”
Claim · model-written summary
Water deficit induced neither osmotic nor elastic adjustment in either genotype.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Treatment
- Water deficite0
- Outcome
- osmotic nor elastic adjustmente0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“Water deficit induced neither osmotic nor elastic adjustment in either genotype”
Claim · model-written summary
Both genotypes converged to similar oxidative damage under drought.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Outcome
- oxidative damagee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“both genotypes converged to similar oxidative damage”
Claim · model-written summary
Photoprotection was not decisive for the physiological divergence between the two genotypes.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Outcome
- physiological divergencee0
- Qualifier
- photoprotection was not decisivee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“suggesting that photoprotection was not decisive for their physiological divergence”
Claim · model-written summary
THC-dominant plants maintained a higher harvest index under drought.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Material
- THC plantse0
- Treatment
- under droughte0
- Outcome
- harvest indexe0
- Direction
- maintained a highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“THC plants maintained a higher harvest index under drought”
Claim · model-written summary
THC-dominant plants had greater baseline cannabinoid concentrations.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Material
- THC plantse0
- Outcome
- baseline cannabinoid concentrationse1
- Direction
- greatere1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“THC plants maintained a higher harvest index under drought”
e1“greater baseline cannabinoid concentrations”
Claim · model-written summary
Inflorescence biomass of THC-dominant plants had higher energetic value.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Material
- THC plantse0
- Organ / stage
- inflorescence biomasse1
- Outcome
- energetic valuee1
- Direction
- highere1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“THC plants maintained a higher harvest index under drought”
e1“inflorescence biomass with higher energetic value”
Claim · model-written summary
Under drought, CBD-dominant plants showed reductions in cannabinoid content and harvest index.
- Taxon
- Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativat0 - Material
- CBD plantse0
- Treatment
- droughte0
- Outcome
- cannabinoid content and harvest indexe0
- Direction
- reductionse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“in Cannabis sativa Under Drought”
e0“In CBD plants, drought-induced reductions in cannabinoid content and harvest index largely reflected greater photosynthetic impairment and less efficient carbon use”
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1 paper more in this group
See all 5 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.