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Transpiration of silver Fir (Abies alba mill.) during and after drought in relation to soil properties in a Mediterranean mountain area

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Abstract

Context

Silver fir is declining and dying at its southern margin on the Mediterranean area, where climate is expected to be warmer and drier. At a regional scale, silver fir seems to be vulnerable to drought, and at a forest stand scale, tree death seems to be distributed according to soil water availability.

Aim

To understand the vulnerability of silver fir to drought, factors involved in the regulation of transpiration were assessed with respect to soil properties in order to document the spatial distribution of death rates.

Methods

Soil properties were characterized by electric resistivity measurements. Sap flow density and predawn needle water potential were recorded on sampled trees during several years, and crown specific transpiration was estimated. In addition, the vulnerability of coarse roots and branches to cavitation was quantified.

Results and conclusion

Trees growing on soils with a large water storage capacity were the most vulnerable to drought induced soil water deficits. Transpiration was down-regulated as soon as predawn water potential decreased. The vulnerability to cavitation was low, which protected the trees from run-away xylem embolism. Severe soil water deficits led to a rapid decrease of transpiration, which was still visible the following year. The drop-off in transpiration was mainly due to inner sap flow that almost ceased after the drought on all monitored trees. Our results suggest that root dynamic and the ability of roots to take up water were modified by soil water deficit over several years. Such a regulation scheme needs to be better documented and included in models to address silver fir forest responses to drought.

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Acknowledgments

We thank B. Bes, A. Chapelet, N. Mariotte, F. Courdier, W. Brunetto, D. Gounelle, and A. Jouineau for their important help in taking all of the measurements in the field as well as G. Sappe, O. Marloie, J.F. Hanocq, and F. Tison for their technical support on the building of sensors and wiring. We also thank A. Granier, S. Rambal, C. Doussan, and L. Pages for several discussions that helped to understand the results and E. Dreyer and two anonymous reviewers who were very helpful to improve this manuscript.

Funding

The research was funded by the project ANR-06-VULN-004 (Agence Nationale de Recherche) and by the Office National des Forêts (ONF) through a PhD grant.

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Correspondence to André Chanzy.

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Handling Editor: Erwin Dreyer

Contribution of the co-authors

M. Nourtier: experimental design, data collection, data analysis, paper writingA. Chanzy: experimental design, supervising the work, paper writingM. Cailleret: experimental design, data collection, data analysis, paper writingY. Xie: experimental design, data collection, data analysisR. Huc: experimental design, data analysis, paper reviewingH. Davi: experimental design, supervising the work, paper writing

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Nourtier, M., Chanzy, A., Cailleret, M. et al. Transpiration of silver Fir (Abies alba mill.) during and after drought in relation to soil properties in a Mediterranean mountain area. Annals of Forest Science 71, 683–695 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-012-0229-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-012-0229-9

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