Interactions between beech and oak seedlings can modify the effects of hotter droughts and the onset of hydraulic failure

Summary Mixing species with contrasting resource use strategies could reduce forest vulnerability to extreme events. Yet, how species diversity affects seedling hydraulic responses to heat and drought, including mortality risk, is largely unknown. Using open‐top chambers, we assessed how, over sever...

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Published in:The New phytologist Vol. 241; no. 3; pp. 1021 - 1034
Main Authors: Mas, Eugénie, Cochard, Hervé, Deluigi, Janisse, Didion‐Gency, Margaux, Martin‐StPaul, Nicolas, Morcillo, Luna, Valladares, Fernando, Vilagrosa, Alberto, Grossiord, Charlotte
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.02.2024
Wiley
Subjects:
Beech
Canopies
Canopy
Conductance
Drought
Droughts
Environmental impact
Fagus
Fagus sylvatica subsp. sylvatica
forests
functional diversity
Health risks
Heat
Hot Temperature
Human health and pathology
hydraulic failure
hydraulic safety margins
Hydraulics
Juveniles
leaf water potential
Leaves
Life Sciences
Mixtures
Moisture content
Monoculture
Mortality
Mortality risk
Oak
Plant cover
Plant Leaves - physiology
Plant Transpiration - physiology
Quercus
risk
Safety margins
Seedlings
Soil mixtures
Soil water
Species diversity
Stomata
Stomatal conductance
stomatal movement
SurEau
Tissues and Organs
Transpiration
tree mortality
Trees
turgor loss point
Vegetal Biology
Vulnerability
Water - physiology
Water potential
functional diversity
stomatal conductance
turgor loss point
hydraulic failure
hydraulic safety margins
SurEau
ISSN:0028-646X, 1469-8137, 1469-8137
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Summary Mixing species with contrasting resource use strategies could reduce forest vulnerability to extreme events. Yet, how species diversity affects seedling hydraulic responses to heat and drought, including mortality risk, is largely unknown. Using open‐top chambers, we assessed how, over several years, species interactions (monocultures vs mixtures) modulate heat and drought impacts on the hydraulic traits of juvenile European beech and pubescent oak. Using modeling, we estimated species interaction effects on timing to drought‐induced mortality and the underlying mechanisms driving these impacts. We show that mixtures mitigate adverse heat and drought impacts for oak (less negative leaf water potential, higher stomatal conductance, and delayed stomatal closure) but enhance them for beech (lower water potential and stomatal conductance, narrower leaf safety margins, faster tree mortality). Potential underlying mechanisms include oak's larger canopy and higher transpiration, allowing for quicker exhaustion of soil water in mixtures. Our findings highlight that diversity has the potential to alter the effects of extreme events, which would ensure that some species persist even if others remain sensitive. Among the many processes driving diversity effects, differences in canopy size and transpiration associated with the stomatal regulation strategy seem the primary mechanisms driving mortality vulnerability in mixed seedling plantations. See also the Commentary on this article by Wright, 241: 955–957.
Bibliography:Wright
955–957.
See also the Commentary on this article by
241
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ISSN:0028-646X
1469-8137
1469-8137
DOI:10.1111/nph.19358