Xylem function and growth rate interact to determine recovery rates after exposure to extreme water deficit

Brodribb, Timothy J.; Bowman, David M. J. S.; Nichols, Scott C.; Delzon, Sylvain; Burlett, Régis

doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03393.x

Cited by 314 publications

(313 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The convergence on a 'risky' hydraulic strategy exhibited by many species can be understood as the result of a trade-off that balances growth with protection against risk of mortality in a given environment 17,21,25 . Thus, a low safety margin to Y 50 also indicates that stomatal regulation takes full advantage of the range of xylem pressures that are within the tolerance of the hydraulic system of that species.…”

Section: Letter Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The seemingly risky embolism-tolerance strategies seen in angiosperms suggest that flowering plants may have a greater capacity to reverse embolism, a process by which gas is dissolved and the conduits are restored to a water-filled and functional status. Although this process is still poorly understood, it is clear that recovery can only occur if periods of drought are followed by sufficient precipitation and a return to favourable water status 24,25 . Therefore, refilling does not represent an effective escape strategy for mitigating the effects of severe and persistent drought.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought

Choat

Jansen

Brodribb

et al. 2012

Nature

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Shifts in rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures associated with climate change are likely to cause widespread forest decline in regions where droughts are predicted to increase in duration and severity. One primary cause of productivity loss and plant mortality during drought is hydraulic failure. Drought stress creates trapped gas emboli in the water transport system, which reduces the ability of plants to supply water to leaves for photosynthetic gas exchange and can ultimately result in desiccation and mortality. At present we lack a clear picture of how thresholds to hydraulic failure vary across a broad range of species and environments, despite many individual experiments. Here we draw together published and unpublished data on the vulnerability of the transport system to drought-induced embolism for a large number of woody species, with a view to examining the likely consequences of climate change for forest biomes. We show that 70% of 226 forest species from 81 sites worldwide operate with narrow hydraulic safety margins against injurious levels of drought stress and therefore potentially face long-term reductions in productivity and survival if temperature and aridity increase as predicted for many regions across the globe. Safety margins are largely independent of mean annual precipitation, showing that there is global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought, with all forest biomes equally vulnerable to hydraulic failure regardless of their current rainfall environment. These findings provide insight into why drought-induced forest decline is occurring not only in arid regions but also in wet forests not normally considered at drought risk

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Section: Letter Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought

Choat

Jansen

Brodribb

et al. 2012

Nature

Self Cite

2,098

105

2,036

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“…On a daily time scale, recovery is important as nighttime allows recovery of many processes. Refilling of embolized xylem vessels [26] and growth of new conductive tissue [27] are also examples of damage tolerance.…”

Section: New Definitions Of Mechanisms For Dealing With Droughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought Adaptation Mechanisms Should Guide Experimental Design

Gilbert¹,

Medina²

2016

Trends in Plant Science

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The mechanism, or hypothesis, of how a plant might be adapted to drought should strongly influence experimental designs. For instance, an experiment testing for water conservation should be distinct from a damage tolerance evaluation. Here we define four new, general mechanisms for plant adaptation to drought, so that experiments can be more easily designed based upon the definitions. A series of experimental methods are suggested along with appropriate physiological measurements related to the drought adaptation mechanisms. The suggestion is made that the experimental manipulation should match the rate, length, and severity of soil water deficit needed to test the hypothesized type of drought adaptation mechanism.

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“…Cavitation occurred only when the xylem pressure fell below a threshold value more negative than that occurring in the absence of stress . Under this high-cavitation-resistance paradigm, cavitation was seen as an exceptional process occurring only after prolonged water stress with the drought tolerance of the tree depending on its capacity to avoid cavitation (Brodribb and Cochard 2009;Brodribb et al 2010;Urli et al 2013). For the first time, a mechanistic explanation for stomatal closure and tree death during water stress had been identified, and this was considered a major advance in the understanding of tree water relations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Hydraulic failure and repair are not routine in trees

Cochard

Delzon

2013

Annals of Forest Science

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125

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Trees can pull tons of water up to 100 m above ground, whereas even the best engineered suction pumps can manage only 10 m at most. Beyond this height, the pull of gravity exceeds atmospheric pressure. The pressure at the top of the water column then becomes negative, and pumps drain by a process of vaporization called cavitation. So how do plants, particularly tall trees, cope with cavitation? Do they have an astonishingly high resistance to this process or are they routinely exposed to cavitation events and possess remarkable repair capacities? These questions were first asked when the mechanism of sap ascent in trees was discovered in the late nineteenth century (Brown 2013), but were not answered until reliable methods for measuring cavitation were introduced a century later. Early studies of plant hydraulics suggested that cavitation occurred only in conditions of severe drought (Fig. 1a). However, many studies carried out in the last decade have called this understanding of tree physiology and ecology into question. Diurnal cycles of cavitation and repair have been reported, even in well watered plants, suggesting that plants routinely face cavitation and recover easily from it. Writing in Plant Cell and Environment, Wheeler et al. (2013) provided compelling new experimental evidence that trees are much more resistant to cavitation than previously thought, demonstrating that this change of paradigm should now be reconsidered

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Xylem function and growth rate interact to determine recovery rates after exposure to extreme water deficit

Cited by 314 publications

References 33 publications

Global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought

Global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought

Drought Adaptation Mechanisms Should Guide Experimental Design

Hydraulic failure and repair are not routine in trees

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