Leaf thermotolerance in dry tropical forest tree species: relationships with leaf traits and effects of drought.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how tropical trees will respond to extreme temperatures and drought is essential to predict how future increases in the severity, frequency and duration of extreme climatic events will affect tropical systems. In this study, we investigated leaf thermotolerance by quantifying the temperatures that resulted in a 50 % decrease in photosystem II function (T₅₀) in experimentally grown saplings of 12 tree species from a seasonally dry tropical forest. We examined the relationship of thermotolerance with leaf functional traits and photosynthetic rates. Additionally, we tested how water limitation altered thermotolerance within species, and examined the relationship between thermotolerance and drought tolerance among species. Thermotolerance ranged from 44.5 to 48.1 °C in

SUBMITTER: Sastry A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5767958 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature