Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 20, Issue 11, Pages 1437-1447Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12851
Keywords
Dieback; drought; stomata; tree mortality; xylem embolism
Categories
Funding
- INRA-EFPA division
- 'Investments for the Future' program from the French National Agency for Research [ANR-10-EQPX-16]
- Cluster of Excellence COTE [ANR-10-LABX-45]
- PitBulles project [2010 Blanc 171001]
- ERC project TREEPEACE [FP7-339728]
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Stomata play a significant role in the Earth's water and carbon cycles, by regulating gaseous exchanges between the plant and the atmosphere. Under drought conditions, stomatal control of transpiration has long been thought to be closely coordinated with the decrease in hydraulic capacity (hydraulic failure due to xylem embolism). We tested this hypothesis by coupling a meta-analysis of functional traits related to the stomatal response to drought and embolism resistance with simulations from a soil-plant hydraulic model. We report here a previously unreported phenomenon: the existence of an absolute limit by which stomata closure must occur to avoid rapid death in drought conditions. The water potential causing stomatal closure and the xylem pressure at the onset of embolism formation were equal for only a small number of species, and the difference between these two traits (i.e. safety margins) increased continuously with increasing embolism resistance. Our findings demonstrate the need to revise current views about the functional coordination between stomata and hydraulic traits and provide a mechanistic framework for modeling plant mortality under drought conditions.
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