Drought-induced dieback of Pinus nigra: a tale of hydraulic failure and carbon starvation.

ABSTRACT: Ongoing climate change is apparently increasing tree mortality rates, and understanding mechanisms of drought-induced tree decline can improve mortality projections. Differential drought impact on conspecific individuals within a population has been reported, but no clear mechanistic explanation for this pattern has emerged. Following a severe drought (summer 2012), we monitored over a 3-year period healthy (H) and declining (D) Pinus nigra trees co-occurring in a karstic woodland to highlight eventual individual-specific physiological differences underlying differential canopy dieback. We investigated differences in water and carbon metabolism, and xylem anatomy as a function of crown health status, as well as eventual genotypic basis of contrasting drought responses. H and D trees

SUBMITTER: Savi T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6541882 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature