High and diverse plastic responses to water availability in four desert woody species of South-America

BIRUK, LUCIA; FERNANDEZ, MARÍA ELENA; GONZALEZ, CARINA VERONICA; GUEVARA, ARANZAZÚ; ROVIDA-KOJIMA, ELISA A; GIORDANO, CARLA VALERIA

TREES-STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2022

0931-1890

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a given genotype to produce different phenotypes in response to changing environmental conditions. Despite its high adaptive value, it may have a high cost in resource-poor ecosystems, restricting the ability of plants to take advantage of surplus resources, e.g., increased levels of precipitation. We aimed to determine the phenotypic plasticity to water availability of four woody species from a hot desert of South America. We carried out a pot experiment with two levels of irrigation in a glasshouse, where performance (biomass production, stem growth, survival) and functional traits (biomass allocation, leaf, stomatal and biochemical) traits were measured. The plasticity profile differed between species, with the highest plasticity in leaf traits (around 80% of the variation), and the lowest in biochemical traits (no variation between treatments). All four species increased their performance under high-water supply, with different magnitudes (phreatophytes > xerophytes). However, some of them showed changes in leaf, stomatal or biomass allocation suggesting lower resistance to drought, which should be considered in dryland revegetation plans with nursery-produced seedlings. Moreover, the patterns of phenotypic plasticity were not associated with the ecological niche of the species in relation to access of the water table in the field.