Abstract
Plant ecophysiological trade-offs between different strategies for tolerating stresses are widely theorized to shape forest functional diversity and vulnerability to climate change. However, trade-offs between hydraulic and stomatal regulation during natural droughts remain under-studied, especially in tropical forests. We investigated eleven mature forest canopy trees in central Amazonia during the strong 2015 El Niño. We found greater xylem embolism resistance (\({P}_{50}\) = − 3.3 ± 0.8 MPa) and hydraulic safety margin (HSM = 2.12 ± 0.57 MPa) than previously observed in more precipitation-seasonal rainforests of eastern Amazonia and central America. We also discovered that taller trees exhibited lower embolism resistance and greater stomatal sensitivity, a height-structured trade-off between hydraulic resistance and active stomatal regulation. Such active regulation of tree water status, triggered by the onset of stem embolism, acted as a feedback to avoid further increases in embolism, and also explained declines in photosynthesis and transpiration. These results suggest that canopy trees exhibit a conservative hydraulic strategy to endure drought, with trade-offs between investment in xylem to reduce vulnerability to hydraulic failure, and active stomatal regulation to protect against low water potentials. These findings improve our understanding of strategies in tropical forest canopies and contribute to more accurate prediction of drought responses.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the National Institute of Amazon Research (INPA) and the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere experiment (LBA) for logistical support. MJF and RSO thanks CNPq for a productivity scholarship.
Funding
This work was supported by the GOAmazon project, jointly funded by the Brazilian Research Foundations of São Paulo State (FAPESP #13/50533-5), and Amazonas State (FAPEAM #062.00570/2014), and the U.S. Department of Energy (awards SC0008383 and SC0011078). Also, we acknowledge additional support by the U.S. National Science Foundation (award #1754803) and Brazil’s Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (CAPES).
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MNG, RSO, and MJF designed the research. MNG, VAHFS, AVG, and JVBC collected the data. MNG analyzed the data. MNG, SVCM, SRS, and VI interpreted the analyses. MNG wrote the first draft and RSO, MJF, SVCM, SRS, VAHFS, and VI authors contributed to editing the manuscript.
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Communicated by Kate McCulloh.
We found tradeoffs between stomatal regulation and hydraulic safety in individuals Amazon trees facing extreme drought. This is novel for tropical forests, and provides new insight into potential climate change responses in a seasonally wet tropical ecosystem that is particularly at risk during El Nino climate events.
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Garcia, M.N., Ferreira, M.J., Ivanov, V. et al. Importance of hydraulic strategy trade-offs in structuring response of canopy trees to extreme drought in central Amazon. Oecologia 197, 13–24 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04924-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04924-9