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Plasticity in hydraulic architecture of Scots pine across Eurasia

  • Ecophysiology
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Abstract

Widespread tree species must show physiological and structural plasticity to deal with contrasting water balance conditions. To investigate these plasticity mechanisms, a meta-analysis of Pinus sylvestris L. sap flow and its response to environmental variables was conducted using datasets from across its whole geographical range. For each site, a Jarvis-type, multiplicative model was used to fit the relationship between sap flow and photosynthetically active radiation, vapour pressure deficit (D) and soil moisture deficit (SMD); and a logarithmic function was used to characterize the response of stomatal conductance (G s) to D. The fitted parameters of those models were regressed against climatic variables to study the acclimation of Scots pine to dry/warm conditions. The absolute value of sap flow and its sensitivity to D and SMD increased with the average summer evaporative demand. However, relative sensitivity of G s to D (m/G s,ref, where m is the slope and G s,ref is reference G s at D = 1 kPa) did not increase with evaporative demand across populations, and transpiration per unit leaf area at a given D increased accordingly in drier/warmer climates. This physiological plasticity was linked to the previously reported climate- and size-related structural acclimation of leaf to sapwood area ratios. G s,ref, and its absolute sensitivity to D (m), tended to decrease with age/height of the trees as previously reported for other pine species. It is unclear why Scots pines have higher transpiration rates at drier/warmer sites, at the expense of lower water-use efficiency. In any case, our results suggest that these structural adjustments may not be enough to prevent lower xylem tensions at the driest sites.

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Acknowledgements

Research at the ICTJA was supported by the projects PROHISEM (REN2001-2268-C02-01/HID), PIRIHEROS (REN2003-08768/HID) and CANOA (CGL2004-04919-C02-01), funded by the Spanish MEC, and an agreement between CSIC and DGCONA within the RESEL project. The research at the University of Antwerp was in part supported by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission as contract no. GOCE-CT-2003-505572 (Carbo-Europe IP) and by a Bilateral Scientific Cooperation project (BWS-BOF-2006) between the University of Antwerp and the Czech Republic. The first author benefited from a FPI grant and additional funding by the Spanish MEC for a research stay at the University of Edinburgh. We also acknowledge financial support from NERC (grant number NER/A/S/2001/01193) to M.Mencuccini. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on a previous version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera, ICTJA-CSIC, Lluís Solé i Sabarís, s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    R. Poyatos & P. Llorens

  2. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Crew Building, King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JN, UK

    J. Martínez-Vilalta & M. Mencuccini

  3. CREAF/Unitat d’Ecologia, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 01893, Barcelona, Spain

    J. Martínez-Vilalta

  4. Institute of Forest Ecology, Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Zĕmĕdĕlská 3, 613000, Brno, Czech Republic

    J. Čermák & N. Nadezhdina

  5. Department of Biology, University of Antwerpen, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium

    R. Ceulemans

  6. Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières, INRA-Centre de Nancy, 54280, Champenoux, France

    A. Granier

  7. Department of Forest Science, Richardson Hall, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331-5752, USA

    J. Irvine

  8. Department of Meteorology, Institute for Hydrology and Meteorology, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    B. Köstner

  9. Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis, Geobiosphere Science Centre, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    F. Lagergren

  10. Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Gaverstraat 4, 9500, Geraardsbergen, Belgium

    L. Meiresonne

  11. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, PO Box 100164, 07743, Jena, Germany

    R. Zimmermann

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Correspondence to R. Poyatos.

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Communicated by Hermann Heilmeier.

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Poyatos, R., Martínez-Vilalta, J., Čermák, J. et al. Plasticity in hydraulic architecture of Scots pine across Eurasia. Oecologia 153, 245–259 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0740-0

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