Hydraulic prediction of drought-induced plant dieback and top-kill depends on leaf habit and growth form.
Ecol Lett
; 24(11): 2350-2363, 2021 Nov.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34409716
ABSTRACT
Hydraulic failure caused by severe drought contributes to aboveground dieback and whole-plant death. The extent to which dieback or whole-plant death can be predicted by plant hydraulic traits has rarely been tested among species with different leaf habits and/or growth forms. We investigated 19 hydraulic traits in 40 woody species in a tropical savanna and their potential correlations with drought response during an extreme drought event during the El Niño-Southern Oscillation in 2015. Plant hydraulic trait variation was partitioned substantially by leaf habit but not growth form along a trade-off axis between traits that support drought tolerance versus avoidance. Semi-deciduous species and shrubs had the highest branch dieback and top-kill (complete aboveground death) among the leaf habits or growth forms. Dieback and top-kill were well explained by combining hydraulic traits with leaf habit and growth form, suggesting integrating life history traits with hydraulic traits will yield better predictions.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Water
/
Droughts
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Language:
En
Journal:
Ecol Lett
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China