Toward an index of desiccation time to tree mortality under drought.
Research in plant hydraulics has provided important insights into plant responses to drought and species absolute drought tolerance. However, our ability to predict when plants will die from hydraulic failure under extreme drought is limited by a lack of knowledge with regards to the dynamics of plant desiccation following stomatal closure. Thus, we develop a simple hydraulics model based on branch-level traits that incorporates key aspects of allometry, rates of water loss and resistance to embolism thresholds in order to define species differences in the time it takes plants to desiccate from stomatal closure to lethal levels of drought stress.
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia. c.blackman@westernsydney.edu.au.
Chris J
CJ
Blackman
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.
Sebastian
S
Pfautsch
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.
Brendan
B
Choat
BIOGECO INRA, Univ. of Bordeaux, 33610, Cestas, France.
Sylvain
S
Delzon
USDA-ARS, Water Management Research, 2150 Center Ave, Build D, Suite 320, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, United States.
Sean M
SM
Gleason
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.
Remko A
RA
Duursma
D003681:Dehydration; D055864:Droughts; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008954:Models, Biological; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism
D014867:Water