Plastic Responses of Magnolia schiedeana Schltdl., a Relict-Endangered Mexican Cloud Forest Tree, to Climatic Events: Evidences from Leaf Venation and Wood Vessel Anatomy

Abstract

<jats:p>The Mexican tropical montane cloud forest trees occur under special and limited climatic conditions; many of these species are particularly more sensitive to drought stress. Hydric transport in leaf veins and wood features are influenced by climatic variations and individual intrinsic factors, which are essential processes influencing xylogenesis. We assessed the plastic response to climatic oscillation in two relict-endangered Magnolia schiedeana Schltdl. populations and associated the architecture of leaf vein traits with microenvironmental factors and wood anatomy features with climatic variables. The microenvironmental factors differed significantly between the two Magnolia populations and significantly influenced variation in M. schiedeana leaf venation traits. The independent chronologies developed for the two study forests were dated back 171–190 years. The climate-growth analysis showed that M. schiedeana growth is strongly related to summer conditions and growth responses to Tmax, Tmin, and precipitation. Our study highlights the use of dendroecological tools to detect drought effects. This association also describes modifications in vessel traits recorded before, during, and after drought events. In conclusion, our results advance our understanding of the leaf vein traits and wood anatomy plasticity in response to microenvironmental fluctuations and climate in the tropical montane cloud forest.</jats:p>

Plastic adjustments in xylem vessel traits to drought events in three Cedrela species from Peruvian Tropical Andean forests

“…Although there has been a long-standing recognition of the importance of climate variation on tree-ring width variation for TMCF tree species 20 , the assessment of how drought influences vessel traits are relatively new. How climate triggers resilience in vessel traits may increase our understanding of how TMCF tree species will respond to future climate change 15 .…”

“…Despite the long-standing recognition of the importance of climate variation on tree ring assessment for the TMCF tree species 43 , the drought influence assessment on vessel trait is relatively new. Climate and environmental effects on vessel traits trigger resilience species may help understand how TMCF tree species will respond to further climate change 20 . We found that T max and EvT influenced specific vessel traits (e.g., vessel diameter, vulnerability index) developing narrow vessels), hence functional adaptive in xylem properties 40 as other TMCF tree species 15 , however, a high number of narrow vessels is significantly safer in terms of embolism resilience compared to a few large vessels 44 .…”

Influence of Pleistocene climatic oscillations on the phylogeography and demographic history of endemic vulnerable trees (sectionMagnolia) of the Tropical Montane Cloud Forest in Mexico

“…Magnolia schiedeana is a perennial tree (>200 years) up to 25 m in height (Rodríguez-Ramírez et al, 2020). The species flowers from April to June, has sexual reproduction but can reproduce clonally by sprouting from the base of the trunk (Vásquez-Morales et al, 2017).…”

“…The TMCF of Mexico are composed of highly heterogenous forest that can vary markedly in environmental conditions (Gual-Díaz & González-Medrano, 2014). Local environmental differences have been suggested to generate the large intraspecific morphological variations observed across populations of M. schiedeana (Vite, 2016;Rodríguez-Ramírez et al, 2020). This environmental heterogeneity may have led to differential habitats preferences and thus to divergence by ecological factors, a potential hypothesis that could be tested in the future.…”

A Comparative Analysis of the Hydraulic Strategies of Non-Native and Native Perennial Forbs in Arid and Semiarid Areas of China

“…Although more than half of the Earth's land is covered by non-forest vegetation [11], vessel anatomical traits of plants are largely represented by anatomical and dendrochronological studies on trees and shrubs [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], with relatively few similar studies on herbaceous species [11,[24][25][26][27]. Studies have shown that there are annual growth rings in the secondary root xylem of perennial herbaceous species [11,28], with wider vessels at the beginning of the growing season and narrower vessels at the end of the growing season [29].…”