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Leaf hydraulic vulnerability to drought is linked to site water availability across a broad range of species and climates.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Vulnerability of the leaf hydraulic pathway to water-stress-induced dysfunction is a key component of drought tolerance in plants and may be important in defining species' climatic range. However, the generality of the association between leaf hydraulic vulnerability and climate across species and sites remains to be tested. METHODS: Leaf hydraulic vulnerability to drought (P50leaf, the water potential inducing 50 % loss in hydraulic function) was measured in a diverse group of 92 woody, mostly evergreen angiosperms from sites across a wide range of habitats. These new data together with some previously published were tested against key climate indices related to water availability. Differences in within-site variability in P50leaf between sites were also examined. KEY RESULTS: Values of hydraulic vulnerability to drought in leaves decreased strongly (i.e. became more negative) with decreasing annual rainfall and increasing aridity across sites. The standard deviation in P50leaf values recorded within each site was positively correlated with increasing aridity. P50leaf was also a good indicator of the climatic envelope across each species' distributional range as well as their dry-end distributional limits within Australia, although this relationship was not consistently detectable within sites. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that species sorting processes have influenced distributional patterns of P50leaf across the rainfall spectrum, but alternative strategies for dealing with water deficit exist within sites. The strong link to aridity suggests leaf hydraulic vulnerability may influence plant distributions under future climates.

SUBMITTER: Blackman CJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4204664 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Leaf hydraulic vulnerability to drought is linked to site water availability across a broad range of species and climates.

Blackman Chris J CJ Gleason Sean M SM Chang Yvonne Y Cook Alicia M AM Laws Claire C Westoby Mark M

Annals of botany 20140708 3

<h4>Background and aims</h4>Vulnerability of the leaf hydraulic pathway to water-stress-induced dysfunction is a key component of drought tolerance in plants and may be important in defining species' climatic range. However, the generality of the association between leaf hydraulic vulnerability and climate across species and sites remains to be tested.<h4>Methods</h4>Leaf hydraulic vulnerability to drought (P50leaf, the water potential inducing 50 % loss in hydraulic function) was measured in a ...[more]

PMID: 25006181

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Project description:BackgroundLeaf hydraulic and economics traits are critical for balancing plant water and CO2 exchange, and their relationship has been widely studied. Leaf anatomical traits determine the efficiency of CO2 diffusion within mesophyll structure. However, it remains unclear whether leaf anatomical traits are associated with leaf hydraulic and economics traits acclimation to long-term drought.ResultsTo address this knowledge gap, eight hydraulic traits, including stomatal and venation structures, four economics traits, including leaf dry mass per area (LMA) and the ratio between palisade and spongy mesophyll thickness (PT/ST), and four anatomical traits related to CO2 diffusion were measured in tomato seedlings under the long-term drought conditions. Redundancy analysis indicated that the long-term drought decreased stomatal conductance (gs) mainly due to a synchronized reduction in hydraulic structure such as leaf hydraulic conductance (Kleaf) and major vein width. Simultaneously, stomatal aperture on the adaxial surface and minor vein density (VDminor) also contributed a lot to this reduction. The decreases in mesophyll thickness (Tmes) and chlorophyll surface area exposed to leaf intercellular air spaces (Sc/S) were primarily responsible for the decline of mesophyll conductance (gm) thereby affecting photosynthesis. Drought increased leaf density (LD) thus limited CO2 diffusion. In addition, LMA may not be important in regulating gm in tomato under drought. Principal component analysis revealed that main anatomical traits such as Tmes and Sc/S were positively correlated to Kleaf, VDminor and leaf thickness (LT), while negatively associated with PT/ST.ConclusionsThese findings indicated that leaf anatomy plays an important role in maintaining the balance between water supply and CO2 diffusion responses to drought. There was a strong coordination between leaf hydraulic, anatomical, and economical traits in tomato seedlings acclimation to long-term drought.

Project description:Drought can occur at different times during the grassland growing season, likely having contrasting effects on forage production when happening early or later in the season. However, knowledge about the interacting effects of the timing of drought and the development stage of the vegetation during the growing season is still scarce, thus limiting our ability to accurately predict forage quantity losses. To investigate plant community responses to drought seasonality (early- vs. late-season), we established a drought experiment in two permanent grasslands of the Swiss Jura Mountains that are used for forage production. We measured three plant functional traits, including two leaf traits related to plant economics (specific leaf area, SLA; leaf dry matter content, LDMC) and one hydraulic trait related to physiological function (predicted percentage loss of hydraulic conductance, PLCp), of the most abundant species, and plant above-ground biomass production. Plant species composition was also determined to calculate community-weighted mean (CWM) traits. First, we observed that CWM trait values strongly varied during the growing season. Second, we found that late-season drought had stronger effects on CWM trait values than early-season drought and that the plant hydraulic trait was the most variable functional trait. Using a structural equation model, we also showed that reduction in soil moisture had no direct impacts on above-ground biomass production. Instead, we observed that the drought-induced decrease in above-ground biomass production was mediated by a higher CWM PLCp (i.e. higher risk of hydraulic failure) and lower CWM SLA under drought. Change in CWM SLA in response to drought was the best predictor of community above-ground biomass production. Our findings reveal the importance of drought timing together with the plant trait responses to assess drought impacts on grassland biomass production and suggest that incorporating these factors into mechanistic models could considerably improve predictions of climate change impacts.

Dataset Information

Leaf hydraulic vulnerability to drought is linked to site water availability across a broad range of species and climates.

Publications

Leaf hydraulic vulnerability to drought is linked to site water availability across a broad range of species and climates.

Similar Datasets

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