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Can the turgor loss point be used to assess drought response to select plants for green roofs in hot and dry climates?

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Abstract

Aims

Green roofs are important novel urban ecosystems, but their shallow substrates can create plant water deficits in dry climates. Physiological approaches can improve green roof plant selection, and shrubs with high drought tolerance and conservative water use under water-deficit should perform well. The water potential at turgor loss point (Ψtlp) has been used to predict drought resistance. Therefore we aimed to determine whether Ψtlp could be used as a screening tool to assess drought resistance for green roof plant selection.

Methods

We evaluated 20 shrub species, originating from ecosystems varying in water availability, quantified by heat moisture index (HMI) and mean annual precipitation. We conducted a water-deficit experiment to measure Ψtlp, the degree of iso-anisohydry (△ΨMD) and water use (ET) in response to drought.

Results

Shrubs with lower Ψtlp were more anisohydric (greater △ΨMD) and had a more conservative water use (lower ET). However, Ψtlp, ΔΨMD and ET were not related to HMI.

Conclusions

These results suggest that Ψtlp could be used to select shrubs for green roofs, as species with lower Ψtlp tended to be more drought tolerant, more anisohydric and used less water under water-deficit. However, species with higher Ψtlp could also potentially survive through drought avoidance.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Guiqing Xu and Xiang Zhang for assistance planting and harvesting plants, and Chris Szota and Carola Pritzkow for assistance with the use of the pressure chamber and microtome during this experiment. Thanks also to Burnley nursery staff Nick Osborne and Sascha Andrusiak for technical assistance during the experiment. The China Scholarship Council (CSC) funded P. Du with a PhD fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecosystem and Forestry Science, University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Boulevard, Richmond, Victoria, 3121, Australia

    Pengzhen Du, Stefan K. Arndt & Claire Farrell

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  1. Pengzhen Du
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  2. Stefan K. Arndt
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Contributions

Claire Farrell, Stefan Arndt and Pengzhen Du conceived the ideas and designed methodology, Pengzhen Du collected the data, analysed the data and led the writing the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Claire Farrell.

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Du, P., Arndt, S.K. & Farrell, C. Can the turgor loss point be used to assess drought response to select plants for green roofs in hot and dry climates?. Plant Soil 441, 399–408 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-04133-7

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