Wood trait trade-offs in desert plants: a triangular model to understand intra- and interspecific variations along an aridity gradient

EDGARDO MELIÁN; GATICA, MARIO GABRIEL; EDUARDO PUCHETA

AUSTRAL ECOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2023

1442-9985

Thehydraulic architecture of woody plants may show intra- andinterspecific variations along aridity gradients as a result of woodtrait trade-offs, which depend on species-specific abilities towithstand or evade drought. Plant hydraulic architecture can bedefined as the set of different cell types involved in watertransport through the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. At the presenttime, there are two models designed to understand trade-offs amongxylem wood functional traits, developed by Baas and Pratt,respectively. The first model presentsa triangular trade-off space where three main plant xylem functionsare linked to each other to provide resistance to embolism inevolutionary time. The second model depicts xylem cell typesassociated with their main functions, namely vessel-transport,parenchyma-storage and fibre-support. We propose here a new modelconsidering the same relative xylem cell trait abundance for threedesert species with different drought-tolerance strategies along anaridity gradient of more than 300 mm. Hence, our model may accountfor both intra- and interspecific variations in wood traits forspecies from different localities along an aridity gradient. The treeNeltumaflexuosashowed little intraspecific variation in the medium droughtresistance portion of the trade-off space, suggesting this species isindependent from rainfall. Larreadivaricatashowed a similar low intraspecific variation, but the spatiallocation in the trade-off space suggests it has a high tolerance todrought. The third species, Bulnesiaretama,showed a higher intraspecific variation within the trade-off space,changing its hydraulic architecture inmorefibre area with increasing aridity.  Our model seems to be ageneralised tool to assess both intra- and interspecific variationsin trade-offs for hydraulic architecture among woody plants as aresponse to drought. p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; color: #000000; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Calibri", serif; font-size: 11pt; so-language: en-GB }p.cjk { font-family: "Calibri"; font-size: 11pt; so-language: es-AR }p.ctl { font-family: "Calibri"; font-size: 11pt; so-language: ar-SA }a:visited { color: #800080; text-decoration: underline }a:link { color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline }