Growing-season temperature and precipitation are independent drivers of global variation in xylem hydraulic conductivity

Pengcheng He; Sean M Gleason; Ian J Wright; Ensheng Weng; Hui Liu; Shidan Zhu; Mingzhen Lu; Qi Luo; Ronghua Li; Guilin Wu; Enrong Yan; Yanjun Song; Xiangcheng Mi; Guangyou Hao; Peter B Reich; Yingping Wang; David S Ellsworth; Qing Ye

doi:10.1111/gcb.14929

Growing-season temperature and precipitation are independent drivers of global variation in xylem hydraulic conductivity

Glob Chang Biol. 2020 Mar;26(3):1833-1841. doi: 10.1111/gcb.14929. Epub 2019 Dec 10.

Authors

Pengcheng He^{1

2

3}, Sean M Gleason⁴, Ian J Wright⁵, Ensheng Weng⁶, Hui Liu^{1

2}, Shidan Zhu⁷, Mingzhen Lu⁸, Qi Luo^{3

9}, Ronghua Li¹⁰, Guilin Wu^{1

2}, Enrong Yan¹¹, Yanjun Song¹¹, Xiangcheng Mi¹², Guangyou Hao¹³, Peter B Reich^{14

15}, Yingping Wang^{1

16}, David S Ellsworth¹⁵, Qing Ye^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
² Center for Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
³ College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ USDA-ARS Water Management and Systems Research Unit, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
⁵ Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁶ Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning, China.
⁸ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
⁹ Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹⁰ Institute of Tropical and Subtropical Ecology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
¹¹ School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
¹² State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹³ Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China.
¹⁴ Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA.
¹⁵ Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia.
¹⁶ CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Aspendale, Vic., Australia.

PMID: 31749261
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14929

Abstract

Stem xylem-specific hydraulic conductivity (K_S ) represents the potential for plant water transport normalized by xylem cross section, length, and driving force. Variation in K_S has implications for plant transpiration and photosynthesis, growth and survival, and also the geographic distribution of species. Clarifying the global-scale patterns of K_S and its major drivers is needed to achieve a better understanding of how plants adapt to different environmental conditions, particularly under climate change scenarios. Here, we compiled a xylem hydraulics dataset with 1,186 species-at-site combinations (975 woody species representing 146 families, from 199 sites worldwide), and investigated how K_S varied with climatic variables, plant functional types, and biomes. Growing-season temperature and growing-season precipitation drove global variation in K_S independently. Both the mean and the variation in K_S were highest in the warm and wet tropical regions, and lower in cold and dry regions, such as tundra and desert biomes. Our results suggest that future warming and redistribution of seasonal precipitation may have a significant impact on species functional diversity, and is likely to be particularly important in regions becoming warmer or drier, such as high latitudes. This highlights an important role for K_S in predicting shifts in community composition in the face of climate change.

Keywords: biome; climate; functional types; hydraulic diversity; species distribution; water transport.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Plant Transpiration
Seasons
Temperature
Water*
Xylem*

Substances

Water

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding