Journal
TREE PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 29, Issue 12, Pages 1537-1549Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpp087
Keywords
carbon isotope discrimination; DN hybrids; genotypic variations; growth potential; intrinsic water-use efficiency; water deficit tolerance; xylem hydraulics
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Funding
- French Ministry of Higher Education and Research'
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Six Populus deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh.P. nigra L. genotypes were selected to investigate whether stem xylem anatomy correlated with gas exchange rates, water-use efficiency (WUE) and growth performance. Clonal copies of the genotypes were grown in a two-plot common garden test under contrasting water regimes, with one plot maintained irrigated and the other one subjected to moderate summer water deficit. The six genotypes displayed a large range of xylem anatomy, mean vessel and fibre diameter varying from about 40 to 60m and from 7.5 to 10.5m, respectively. Decreased water availability resulted in a reduced cell size and an important rise in vessel density, but the extent of xylem plasticity was both genotype and trait dependent. Vessel diameter and theoretical xylem-specific hydraulic conductivity correlated positively with stomatal conductance, carbon isotope discrimination and growth performance-related traits and negatively with intrinsic WUE, especially under water deficit conditions. Vessel diameter and vessel density measured under water deficit conditions correlated with the relative losses in biomass production in response to water deprivation; this resulted from the fact that a more plastic xylem structure was generally accompanied by a larger loss in biomass production.
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