Back to Search
Start Over
Linking xylem network failure with leaf tissue death.
- Source :
-
The New phytologist [New Phytol] 2021 Oct; Vol. 232 (1), pp. 68-79. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Jul 22. - Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Global warming is expected to dramatically accelerate forest mortality as temperature and drought intensity increase. Predicting the magnitude of this impact urgently requires an understanding of the process connecting atmospheric drying to plant tissue damage. Recent episodes of forest mortality worldwide have been widely attributed to dry conditions causing acute damage to plant vascular systems. Under this scenario vascular embolisms produced by water stress are thought to cause plant death, yet this hypothetical trajectory has never been empirically demonstrated. Here we provide foundational evidence connecting failure in the vascular network of leaves with tissue damage caused during water stress. We observe a catastrophic sequence initiated by water column breakage under tension in leaf veins which severs local leaf tissue water supply, immediately causing acute cellular dehydration and irreversible damage. By highlighting the primacy of vascular network failure in the death of leaves exposed to drought or evaporative stress our results provide a strong mechanistic foundation upon which models of plant damage in response to dehydration can be confidently structured.<br /> (© 2021 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2021 New Phytologist Foundation.)
- Subjects :
- Dehydration
Droughts
Plant Leaves
Plant Transpiration
Xylem
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1469-8137
- Volume :
- 232
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- The New phytologist
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 34164816
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17577