A decade of rain exclusion in a Mediterranean forest reveals trade-offs of leaf chemical defenses and drought legacy effects.

ABSTRACT: Increasing aridity in the Mediterranean region will result in longer and recurrent drought. These changes could strongly modify plant defenses, endangering tree survival. We investigate the response of chemical defenses from central and specialized metabolism in Quercus pubescens Willd. to future Mediterranean drought using a long-term drought experiment in natura where trees have been submitted to amplified drought (~ -30% annual precipitation) since April 2012. We focused on leaf metabolites including chlorophylls and carotenoids (central metabolism) and flavonols (specialized metabolism). Measurements were performed in summer from 2016 to 2022. Amplified drought led to higher concentrations of total photosynthetic pigments over the 2016-2022 period. However, it also led to lower AZ/VAZ

SUBMITTER: Laoue J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11480208 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature