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Impact of groundwater depth on leaf hydraulic properties and drought vulnerability of Populus euphratica in the Northwest of China

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Different groundwater conditions affect leaf hydraulic conductance and leaf pressure–volume parameters in Populus euphratica at the extremely arid zone in the northwest of China.

Abstract

Efficient water transport inside leaves constitutes a major determinant of plant function, especially in drought-stressed plants. The previous researches have reported the correlation between leaf hydraulic properties and water availability. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that water relation parameters of Populus euphratica in an extremely arid zone of China are sensitive and acclimated to groundwater depth. We measured leaf hydraulic conductance (K leaf) using rehydration kinetics methods (RKM), pressure–volume (P–V) curves, and leaf vulnerability curves of P. euphratica growing at four groundwater depth gradients. We also assessed the hydraulic safety margins across groundwater depth gradients. We found that K leaf–max shows an increasing trend as the groundwater depth increases, while osmotic potential at full turgor (πft) and turgor loss point (Ψtlp) exhibits a decreasing trend, suggesting that increased tolerance to drought is formed as the groundwater depth increases. Furthermore, safety margins showed positive and negative variations under different groundwater depths, indicating that P. euphratica has formed special drought survival strategies, which can be summarized as a “conservative” strategy in favorable water conditions or a “risk” strategy in severe drought stress.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Christine Scoffoni for her great help with the measurement of the pressure–volume curve. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41371515, No. 41301314) and the National Science and Technology Support Plan (2014BAC15B02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Yingping Pan, Yapeng Chen, Yaning Chen & Rizhao Wang

  2. School of Urban and Environmental Science, Huaiyin Normal University, Huai’an, 223300, China

    Yingping Pan

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Rizhao Wang

  4. Heihe Remote Sensing Experimental Research Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Zhiguo Ren

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  1. Yingping Pan
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  2. Yapeng Chen
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Correspondence to Yapeng Chen.

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Communicated by M. Zwieniecki.

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Pan, Y., Chen, Y., Chen, Y. et al. Impact of groundwater depth on leaf hydraulic properties and drought vulnerability of Populus euphratica in the Northwest of China. Trees 30, 2029–2039 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-016-1430-5

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