scholarly journals Rooting depth, water relations and non-structural carbohydrate dynamics in three woody angiosperms differentially affected by an extreme summer drought

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 618-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Nardini ◽  
Valentino Casolo ◽  
Anna Dal Borgo ◽  
Tadeja Savi ◽  
Barbara Stenni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Relations ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Summer Drought ◽  
Structural Carbohydrate ◽  
Carbohydrate Dynamics ◽  
Depth Water

Rooting depth and plant water relations explain species distribution patterns within a sandplain landscape

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip K. Groom
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Loss ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Summer Drought ◽  
Tissue Water ◽  
Shrub Species ◽  
Water Deficits ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Water Potentials

Tree and shrub species of the Banksia woodlands on the sandplains of northern Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia possess a range of strategies to avoid or tolerate soil water deficits during the annual summer drought. Shallow-rooted shrub species (< 1 m rooting depth) inhabit a range of locations in the landscape, from top of dune crests to wetland embankments. These are the most drought-tolerant of all sandplain species, surviving extremely low summer soil water potentials (< –7 MPa) and tissue water deficits by significantly reducing their transpirational water loss (< 0.2 mmol m–2 s–1). This is in contrast to the few shallow-rooted species restricted to low-lying or seasonally waterlogged areas which are reliant on subsurface soil moisture or groundwater to maintain their relatively high summer water use. Recent studies of water source usage of selected Banksia tree species have shown that these deep-rooted species access groundwater up to a maximum depth of 9 m depth during the summer months, or soil moisture at depth when groundwater was greater than maximum rooting depths, depending on the species. Medium- and deep-rooted (1–2 m and > 2 m, respectively) shrub species cope with the summer soil drying phase and related decrease in groundwater levels by conserving leaf water loss and incurring predawn water potentials between –1 and –4 MPa, enabling them to occur over a range of topographic positions within the sandplain landscape.

Water relations of winter wheat: 2. Soil water relations

1978 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Gregory ◽  
M. McGowan ◽  
P. V. Biscoe
Keyword(s):  
Winter Wheat ◽  
Water Potential ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Relations ◽  
Unit Length ◽  
Soil Water Potential ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Wheat Crop ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Volumetric Soil Water Content

SummaryVolumetric soil water content and soil water potential were measured beneath a winter wheat crop during the 1975 growing season. Almost no rain fell between mid-May and mid-July and the soil dried continuously until the potential was less than – 20 bars to a depth of 80 cm. Evaporation was separated from drainage by denning an ‘effective rooting depth’ at which the hydraulic gradient was zero.Rates of water uptake per unit length of root (inflow) were calculated for the whole soil profile and for individual soil layers. Generally, inflow decreased throughout the period of measurement from a maximum of 2·5 × 10–3 to a minimum of 0·66 × 10–3 ml water/cm root/day. Values in individual layers were frequently higher than the mean inflow and the importance of a few deep roots in taking up water during a dry season is emphasized. A similar correlation between inflow and soil water potential was found to apply for the 0–30 cm and 30–60 cm layers during the period of continual soil drying. This relationship represents the maximum inflow measured at a given soil water potential; actual inflow at any particular time depends upon the interrelationship of atmospheric demand, soil water potential and the distribution of root length in the soil.

Distribution and increment of biomass in adjacent young Douglas-fir stands with different early growth rates

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 722-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Espinosa Bancalari ◽  
David A. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rates ◽  
Aboveground Biomass ◽  
Early Growth ◽  
Douglas Fir ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Summer Drought ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Biomass Increment ◽  
Anaerobic Soils

Total biomass increments were determined for three adjacent 22-year-old Douglas-fir (Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco) plantations in the Oregon Coast Range that had widely different early growth rates. Estimated total aboveground biomass of the stands, designated slow, intermediate, and fast, was 98.7, 148.7, and 203.7 Mg•ha−1, respectively; estimated mean biomass increment in the 5 years previous to sampling was 8.9, 12.6, and 12.3 Mg•ha−1•year−1. The slow stand had a greater proportion of aboveground biomass in branches and a smaller proportion in stem wood than the intermediate and fast stands. Differences in biomass increment were primarily due to stem rather than crown growth. Total below ground biomass was highest in the fast stand, the difference being due to roots >5 mm in diameter; weight of roots <5 mm was greater in the slow and intermediate stands. Roots >5 mm comprised about 77% of the total root system in those stands and 90% in the fast stand. Increment of roots >5 mm was 2.2, 2.5, and 3.0 Mg•ha−1•year−1 in the slow, intermediate, and fast stands. The ratio of productivity to total leaf nitrogen suggests that nitrogen is a principal limiting resource in the intermediate stand. The fast stand, with a leaf area index 50% greater than the others, is probably limited by light. The slow stand has anaerobic soils during at least part of the year, which may restrict rooting depth and thereby induce water stress during summer drought.

scholarly journals Phenological and Temperature Controls on the Temporal Non-Structural Carbohydrate Dynamics of Populus grandidentata and Quercus rubra

Forests ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Gough ◽  
Charles E. Flower ◽  
Christoph S. Vogel ◽  
Peter S. Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Quercus Rubra ◽  
Structural Carbohydrate ◽  
Populus Grandidentata ◽  
Carbohydrate Dynamics

scholarly journals Deepening Rooting Depths Improve Plant Water and Carbon Status of a Xeric Tree during Summer Drought

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 592
Author(s):  
Xin-Jun Zheng ◽  
Gui-Qing Xu ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Xue Wu
Keyword(s):  
Water Status ◽  
Photochemical Efficiency ◽  
Small Diameter ◽  
Stem Diameter ◽  
Physiological Traits ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Summer Drought ◽  
Mortality Pattern ◽  
Adult Trees ◽  
Diameter Classes

Exploring the effects of drought on trees of different sizes is an important research topic because the size-dependent mortality pattern of the major dominant species significantly affects the structure and function of plant communities. Here we studied the physiological performance and non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) dynamics of a small xeric tree species, Haloxylon ammodendron (C.A.Mey.) of different tree size with varying rooting depth, during summer drought. We measured predawn (Ψpd) and midday (Ψm) leaf water potential, osmotic potential at saturated turgor (π100), and turgor lost point (Ψtlp), stomatal conductance (gs) at noon, maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) in the morning, and NSCs concentration, from June–September. Our results demonstrated that the summer drought reduces the overall performance of physiological traits of the small young trees more than the larger adult trees. Ψpd, gs and Fv/Fm dropped larger in the small-diameter groups than the larger diameter groups. Substantial osmotic adjustments were observed in small size individuals (with lower π100 and Ψtlp) to cope with summer drought. Furthermore, mean concentration of NSCs for the leaf and shoot were higher in September than in July in every basal stem diameter classes suggested the leaf and shoot acted as reserve for NSC. However the root NSCs concentrations within each basal stem diameter class exhibited less increase in September than in the July. At the same time, the small young tress had lower root NSCs concentrations than the larger adult tree in both July and September. The contrasting root NSC concentrations across the basal stem diameter classes indicated that the roots of smaller trees may be more vulnerable to carbon starvation under non-lethal summer drought. The significant positive relationship between rooting depth and physiological traits & root NSCs concentration emphasize the importance of rooting depth in determining the seasonal variation of water status, gas exchange and NSCs.

Five years of experimental summer drought – Anatomical and physiological acclimation of mature beech and spruce

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Grams
Keyword(s):  
Norway Spruce ◽  
Soluble Sugars ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
European Beech ◽  
Microbial Interactions ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Summer Drought ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Roof Experiment ◽  
Whole Tree

&lt;p&gt;This contribution summarizes the outcome of a five-year experiment on mature (60-80 years old) trees in a Central European forest. We studied roughly 100 trees of European beech and Norway spruce, two tree species of contrasting foliage (i.e. deciduous vs. evergreen) and stomatal sensitivity to drought (i.e. anisohydric vs. isohydric behavior). Trees were exposed to experimentally induced summer droughts from 2014 to 2018 with precipitation throughfall being completely excluded during the growing seasons. The throughfall-exclusion study was established on 12 plots with trees readily accessible by canopy crane (Kranzberg forest roof experiment, southern Germany). We aimed at bringing trees to the edge of survival to studying trees&amp;#8217; capability for acclimation under repeated, severe summer droughts as expected more frequently in future climate scenarios. Results come from a multidisciplinary approach focusing on mechanisms of acclimation, eventually reducing trees&amp;#8217; vulnerability to drought during the five-year study period. Presented data integrate responses from the level of soil/microbial interactions over tree organs and whole-tree morphology to responses at the stand level.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During the first two years, restrictions caused by drought were most prominent, exemplified by pre-dawn leaf water potentials of down to -2.5 MPa and reductions in photosynthesis and growth by up to 50 and 80 % in European beech and Norway spruce, respectively. Nevertheless, percentage loss of conductivity in branch xylem was hardly affected. Likewise, concentrations of non-structural carbohydrates (sum of soluble sugars and starch) in tree organs remained largely unaffected, but translated to significantly lower carbohydrate pool sizes in view of strongly reduced tree growth. Nevertheless, two spruce trees died from drought, in the absence of bark beetle or pathogen interactions. During the fourth and fifth year of summer drought, trees showed clear signs of drought acclimation with e.g. some recovery of stomatal conductance, reductions of whole-tree leaf area, changes in rooting depth and acclimation of associated soil microbial communities. Accordingly, stem diameter growth recovered during the last years of the stress treatment, indicating reduced vulnerability of trees towards the end of the five-year drought treatment.&lt;/p&gt;

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