Journal
ANNALS OF BOTANY
Volume 112, Issue 7, Pages 1431-1437Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/aob/mct204
Keywords
Water stress; embolism; hydraulic failure; resilience; vulnerability curves; mortality; beech; hybrid poplar; Fagus sylvatica; Populus deltoides P; nigra
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of the Environment, France through the Office of the Executive of the Programme National/ACI, Ecosphere continentale: processus et modelisation
- Ecologie pour la Gestion des Ecosystemes et de leurs Ressources (ECOGER)
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Extreme water stress episodes induce tree mortality, but the physiological mechanisms causing tree death are still poorly understood. This study tests the hypothesis that a potted trees ability to survive extreme monotonic water stress is determined by the cavitation resistance of its xylem tissue. Two species were selected with contrasting cavitation resistance (beech and poplar), and potted juvenile trees were exposed to a range of water stresses, causing up to 100 plant death. The lethal dose of water stress, defined as the xylem pressure inducing 50 mortality, differed sharply across species (175 and 45 MPa in poplar and beech, respectively). However, the relationships between tree mortality and the degree of cavitation in the stems were similar, with mortality occurring suddenly when 90 cavitation had occurred. Overall, the results suggest that cavitation resistance is a causal factor of tree mortality under extreme drought conditions.
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