Divergent Hydraulic Safety Strategies in Three Co-occurring Anacardiaceae Tree Species in a Chinese Savanna.

ABSTRACT: Vulnerability segmentation, the condition under which plant leaves are more vulnerable to drought-induced cavitation than stems, may act as a "safety valve" to protect stems from hydraulic failure. Evergreen, winter-deciduous, and drought-deciduous tree species co-occur in tropical savannas, but there have been no direct studies on the role of vulnerability segmentation and stomatal regulation in maintaining hydraulic safety in trees with these three leaf phenologies. To this end, we selected three Anacardiaceae tree species co-occurring in a Chinese savanna, evergreen Pistacia weinmanniifolia, drought-deciduous Terminthia paniculata, and winter-deciduous Lannea coromandelica, to study inter-species differentiation in leaf and stem hydraulic safety. We found that the t

SUBMITTER: Zhang SB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5241295 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature