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Plant water content integrates hydraulics and carbon depletion to predict drought-induced seedling mortality
- Source :
- Tree Physiology. 39:1300-1312
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2019.
-
Abstract
- Widespread drought-induced forest mortality (DIM) is expected to increase with climate change and drought, and is expected to have major impacts on carbon and water cycles. For large-scale assessment and management, it is critical to identify variables that integrate the physiological mechanisms of DIM and signal risk of DIM. We tested whether plant water content, a variable that can be remotely sensed at large scales, is a useful indicator of DIM risk at the population level. We subjected Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex C. Lawson seedlings to experimental drought using a point of no return experimental design. Periodically during the drought, independent sets of seedlings were sampled to measure physiological state (volumetric water content (VWC), percent loss of conductivity (PLC) and non-structural carbohydrates) and to estimate population-level probability of mortality through re-watering. We show that plant VWC is a good predictor of population-level DIM risk and exhibits a threshold-type response that distinguishes plants at no risk from those at increasing risk of mortality. We also show that plant VWC integrates the mechanisms involved in individual tree death: hydraulic failure (PLC), carbon depletion across organs and their interaction. Our results are promising for landscape-level monitoring of DIM risk.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Point of no return
Physiology
Hydraulics
Carbohydrates
chemistry.chemical_element
Climate change
Plant Science
01 natural sciences
law.invention
03 medical and health sciences
law
Water cycle
Water content
biology
fungi
Water
food and beverages
Plant physiology
biology.organism_classification
Carbon
Droughts
Plant Leaves
030104 developmental biology
Agronomy
chemistry
Seedlings
Seedling
Environmental science
010606 plant biology & botany
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17584469
- Volume :
- 39
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Tree Physiology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f561fabef6d5417b5f725d2eca215caf