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How important is woody tissue photosynthesis in poplar during drought stress?

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Abstract

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Woody tissue photosynthesis might play a key role in maintaining plant carbon economy and hydraulic function under unfavourable conditions such as drought stress.

Abstract

Within trees, a portion of respired CO2 is assimilated by bark and woody tissue photosynthesis, but its physiological role remains unclear, in particular under unfavour able conditions like drought stress. We hypothesised that woody tissue photosynthesis will contribute to overall tree carbon gain both under sufficient water supply and during drought, and plays a role in maintaining the hydraulic function. We subjected half of the trees to a stem and branch light-exclusion treatment to prevent bark and woody tissue photosynthesis. Then, we measured leaf gas exchange and stem growth in Populus deltoides x nigra ‘Monviso’ trees both under well-watered and dry conditions. We additionally measured cavitation using acoustic emission in detached control and light-excluded branches to illustrate the role of woody tissue photosynthesis in xylem embolism repair. Under well-watered conditions, light exclusion resulted in reduced stem growth relative to control trees by 30 %. In response to drought, stem shrinkage of light-excluded trees was more pronounced as compared to control trees. During drought stress also maximum photosynthesis and transpiration rate tended to decrease more rapidly in light-excluded trees compared to control trees. Leaf fall in light-excluded branches together with the larger number of acoustic emissions in control branches indicates that in the latter more xylem vessels were still hydraulically functional under drought. Therefore, our study highlights that photosynthesis at branch and stem level might be a key factor in the resilience of trees to drought stress by maintaining both the plant carbon economy and hydraulic function.

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Author contribution

J. B., L. L. V. and L. O-M performed the measurements. J. B., L. L. V. and K. S. interpreted the results and J. B. wrote the MS. All authors commented on the manuscript during the final stages.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Philip Deman and Geert Favyts of the Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Ghent University, for their enthusiastic technical support. Moreover, we thank Marie-Christine Van Labeke and her colleagues from the Department of Plant Production for the use of the spectrophotometer and help with bark chlorophyll analysis. This project was supported by a starting grant from the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Ghent University to KS and a PhD funding from the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO) granted to LV.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Author notes

  1. Jasper Bloemen

    Present address: Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartesrtraße 15, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Jasper Bloemen, Lidewei L. Vergeynst, Lander Overlaet-Michiels & Kathy Steppe

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  1. Jasper Bloemen
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  2. Lidewei L. Vergeynst
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  3. Lander Overlaet-Michiels
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  4. Kathy Steppe
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Correspondence to Jasper Bloemen.

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Communicated by A. Braeuning.

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Bloemen, J., Vergeynst, L.L., Overlaet-Michiels, L. et al. How important is woody tissue photosynthesis in poplar during drought stress?. Trees 30, 63–72 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-014-1132-9

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