Sapwood to heartwood ratio affects whole-tree water use in dry forest legume and non-legume trees

Reyes‐García, Casandra; Andrade, José Luís; Simá, J. Luis; Us-Santamaría, Roberth; Jackson, Paula C.

doi:10.1007/s00468-012-0708-5

Cited by 45 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Although there was no significant correlation between sapwood area and growth variability explained by the availability of water, Z. tuberculosa , the most sensitive species to water balance, exhibited the highest sapwood area (43%), while C. pluviosa , the least sensitive species, had one of the lowest sapwood areas (23%). Finally, Fabaceae species ( A. cardenasii , A. macrocarpa , C. pluviosa ) also had low values of sapwood area which may be related to a strategy for heartwood production in this family [44].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Differential Growth Responses to Water Balance of Coexisting Deciduous Tree Species Are Linked to Wood Density in a Bolivian Tropical Dry Forest

et al. 2013

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A seasonal period of water deficit characterizes tropical dry forests (TDFs). There, sympatric tree species exhibit a diversity of growth rates, functional traits, and responses to drought, suggesting that each species may possess different strategies to grow under different conditions of water availability. The evaluation of the long-term growth responses to changes in the soil water balance should provide an understanding of how and when coexisting tree species respond to water deficit in TDFs. Furthermore, such differential growth responses may be linked to functional traits related to water storage and conductance. We used dendrochronology and climate data to retrospectively assess how the radial growth of seven coexisting deciduous tree species responded to the seasonal soil water balance in a Bolivian TDF. Linear mixed-effects models were used to quantify the relationships between basal area increment and seasonal water balance. We related these relationships with wood density and sapwood production to assess if they affect the growth responses to climate. The growth of all species responded positively to water balance during the wet season, but such responses differed among species as a function of their wood density. For instance, species with a strong growth response to water availability averaged a low wood density which may facilitate the storage of water in the stem. By contrast, species with very dense wood were those whose growth was less sensitive to water availability. Coexisting tree species thus show differential growth responses to changes in soil water balance during the wet season. Our findings also provide a link between wood density, a trait related to the ability of trees to store water in the stem, and wood formation in response to water availability.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Differential Growth Responses to Water Balance of Coexisting Deciduous Tree Species Are Linked to Wood Density in a Bolivian Tropical Dry Forest

et al. 2013

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“…Consequently, the ability of fixers to use water efficiently is likely to give them a competitive advantage in seasonal savanna and forest biomes (Reyes‐García et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aridity, not fire, favors nitrogen‐fixing plants across tropical savanna and forest biomes

Pellegrini

Staver

Hedin

et al. 2016

Ecology

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Abstract. Tropical savannas are hypothesized to be hot spots of nitrogen-fixer diversity and activity because of the high disturbance and low nitrogen characteristic of savanna landscapes. Here we compare the abundances of nitrogen-fixing and non-fixing trees in both tropical savannas and tropical forests under climatically equivalent conditions, using plant inventory studies across 566 plots in South America and Africa. A single factor, aridity, explained 19-54% of the variance in fixer abundance, and unexpectedly was more important than fire frequency, biome, and continent. Nitrogen fixers were more abundant in arid environments; as a result, African savannas, which tend to be drier, were richer in nitrogen fixers than South American savannas. Fixer abundance converged on similar levels in forests in both continents. We conclude that climate plays a greater role than fire in determining the distribution of nitrogen fixers across tropical savanna and forest biomes.

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“…In seasonally dry ecosystems such as the TDF, carbon exchanges are highly dependent on the annual and seasonal variations of precipitation due the tight relation between water inputs and processes such as net primary production (NPP) [ Sala et al ., ; Méndez‐Barroso et al ., ], litter decomposition, and concomitant respiratory fluxes [ Fierer and Schimel , ; Anaya et al ., ] and transpiration [ Scott et al ., ; Reyes‐García et al ., ; Peng et al ., ], among other physiological and hydrological processes [ Leuzinger and Korner , ; Cherwin and Knapp , ]. Variations in precipitation during the summer season, for example, a delayed start of the monsoon, are recognized to affect the annual carbon balance through alterations of productivity and respiration [ Hutyra et al ., ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variations of net ecosystem production due to seasonal precipitation differences in a tropical dry forest of northwest Mexico

et al. 2015

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Due to their large extent and high primary productivity, tropical dry forests (TDF) are important contributors to atmospheric carbon exchanges in subtropical and tropical regions. In northwest Mexico, a bimodal precipitation regime that includes winter precipitation derived from Pacific storms and summer precipitation from the North American monsoon (NAM) couples water availability with ecosystem processes. We investigated the net ecosystem production of a TDF ecosystem using a 4.5 year record of water and carbon fluxes obtained from the eddy covariance method complemented with remotely sensed data. We identified a large CO2 efflux at the start of the summer season that is strongly related to the preceding winter precipitation and greenness. Since this CO2 efflux occurs prior to vegetation green‐up, we infer that respiration is mainly due to decomposition of soil organic matter accumulated from the prior growing season. Overall, ecosystem respiration has an important effect on the net ecosystem production but can be overwhelmed by the strength of the primary productivity during the NAM. Precipitation characteristics during NAM have significant controls on sustaining carbon fixation in the TDF into the fall season. We identified that a threshold of ~350 to 400 mm of monsoon precipitation leads to a switch in the annual carbon balance in the TDF ecosystem from a net source (+102 g C/m2/yr) to a net sink (−249 g C/m2/yr). This monsoonal precipitation threshold is typically exceeded one out of every 2 years. The close coupling of winter and summer periods with respect to carbon fluxes suggests that the annual carbon balance is dependent on precipitation amounts in both seasons in TDF ecosystems.

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Sapwood to heartwood ratio affects whole-tree water use in dry forest legume and non-legume trees

Cited by 45 publications

References 55 publications

Differential Growth Responses to Water Balance of Coexisting Deciduous Tree Species Are Linked to Wood Density in a Bolivian Tropical Dry Forest

Differential Growth Responses to Water Balance of Coexisting Deciduous Tree Species Are Linked to Wood Density in a Bolivian Tropical Dry Forest

Aridity, not fire, favors nitrogen‐fixing plants across tropical savanna and forest biomes

Variations of net ecosystem production due to seasonal precipitation differences in a tropical dry forest of northwest Mexico

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