Predicting plant vulnerability to drought in biodiverse regions using functional traits.

ABSTRACT: Attempts to understand mechanisms underlying plant mortality during drought have led to the emergence of a hydraulic framework describing distinct hydraulic strategies among coexisting species. This framework distinguishes species that rapidly decrease stomatal conductance (gs), thereby maintaining high water potential (Px; isohydric), from those species that maintain relatively high gs at low Px, thereby maintaining carbon assimilation, albeit at the cost of loss of hydraulic conductivity (anisohydric). This framework is yet to be tested in biodiverse communities, potentially due to a lack of standardized reference values upon which hydraulic strategies can be defined. We developed a system of quantifying hydraulic strategy using indices from vulnerability curves and stomatal dehydration

SUBMITTER: Skelton RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4426410 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature