Plant hydraulics coordinated with photosynthetic traits and climate

Abstract

The coupling between water loss and carbon dioxide uptake drives the coordination of plant hydraulic and photosynthetic traits. Analysing multi-species measurements on a 3000 m elevation gradient, we found that hydraulic and leaf-economic traits were less plastic, and more phylogenetically patterned, than photosynthetic traits. The two trait sets are linked by the sapwood-to-leaf area ratio (Huber value, vH), shown here to be codetermined by sapwood hydraulic conductance (KS), leaf mass-per-area (LMA) and photosynthetic capacity (Vcmax). Substantial hydraulic diversity was related to the trade-off between KS and vH. Leaf drought tolerance (inferred from the turgor loss point, -πtlp) increased with wood density, but the trade-off between hydraulic efficiency (KS) and -πtlp was weak. The least-cost optimality framework was extended to predict trait (KS-dominated) and environmental (temperature-dominated) effects on vH. These results suggest an approach to include photosynthetic-hydraulic coordination in land-surface models; however, prediction of non-plastic trait distributions remains an outstanding challenge.