Drought and resprouting plants.
Many species have the ability to resprout vegetatively after a substantial loss of biomass induced by environmental stress, including drought. Many of the regions characterised by ecosystems where resprouting is common are projected to experience more frequent and intense drought during the 21st Century. However, in assessments of ecosystem response to drought disturbance there has been scant consideration of the resilience and post-drought recovery of resprouting species. Systematic differences in hydraulic and allocation traits suggest that resprouting species are more resilient to drought-stress than nonresprouting species. Evidence suggests that ecosystems dominated by resprouters recover from disturbance more quickly than ecosystems dominated by nonresprouters. The ability of resprouters to avoid mortality and withstand drought, coupled with their ability to recover rapidly, suggests that the impact of increased drought stress in ecosystems dominated by these species may be small. The strategy of resprouting needs to be modelled explicitly to improve estimates of future climate-change impacts on the carbon cycle, but this will require several important knowledge gaps to be filled before resprouting can be properly implemented.
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.
Melanie J B
MJ
Zeppel
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.|School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Sciences (SAGES), Reading University, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AB, UK.
Sandy P
SP
Harrison
Earth and Environmental Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
Henry D
HD
Adams
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.
Douglas I
DI
Kelley
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.
Guangqi
G
Li
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Richmond, NSW, 2753, Australia.
David T
DT
Tissue
Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
Todd E
TE
Dawson
Queensland Herbarium, Environmental Protection Agency, Towong, QLD, Australia.
Rod
R
Fensham
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.
Belinda E
BE
Medlyn
Centre for African Conservation Ecology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Private Bag, 77000, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Anthony
A
Palmer
Department of Botany, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.
Adam G
AG
West
Earth and Environmental Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
Nate G
NG
McDowell
D055864:Droughts; D017753:Ecosystem; D063245:Plant Development; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D012038:Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological
carbon starvation; drought-induced mortality; global vegetation model; hydraulic failure; nonresprouter; post-disturbance recovery; post-drought recovery; resprouter