Leaves as bottlenecks: The contribution of tree leaves to hydraulic resistance within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum

Brett T Wolfe^{1

2}, Matteo Detto^{2

3}, Yong-Jiang Zhang⁴, Kristina J Anderson-Teixeira^{2

5}, Tim Brodribb⁶, Adam D Collins⁷, Chloe Crawford¹, L Turin Dickman⁷, Kim S Ely⁸, Jessica Francisco¹, Preston D Gurry¹, Haigan Hancock¹, Christopher T King¹, Adelodun R Majekobaje¹, Christian J Mallett¹, Nate G McDowell^{9

10}, Zachary Mendheim¹, Sean T Michaletz¹¹, Daniel B Myers¹, Ty J Price¹, Alistair Rogers⁸, Lawren Sack¹², Shawn P Serbin⁸, Zafar Siddiq¹³, David Willis¹, Jin Wu^{14

15}, Joseph Zailaa^{5

12

16}, S Joseph Wright²

Affiliations

¹ School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
² Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Republic of Panama.
³ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
⁴ School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.
⁵ Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, Virginia, USA.
⁶ School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
⁷ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA.
⁸ Brookhaven National Laboratory, Environmental and Climate Science Department, Upton, New York, USA.
⁹ Pacific Northwest National Lab, Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Richland, Washington, USA.
¹⁰ School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA.
¹¹ Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
¹² Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹³ Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan.
¹⁴ School of Biological Sciences, Research Area of Ecology and Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
¹⁵ State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
¹⁶ School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

PMID: 36564901
DOI: 10.1111/pce.14524

Leaves as bottlenecks: The contribution of tree leaves to hydraulic resistance within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum

Brett T Wolfe et al. Plant Cell Environ. 2023 Mar.

. 2023 Mar;46(3):736-746.

doi: 10.1111/pce.14524. Epub 2023 Jan 6.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
² Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Republic of Panama.
³ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
⁴ School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.
⁵ Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, Virginia, USA.
⁶ School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
⁷ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA.
⁸ Brookhaven National Laboratory, Environmental and Climate Science Department, Upton, New York, USA.
⁹ Pacific Northwest National Lab, Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Richland, Washington, USA.
¹⁰ School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA.
¹¹ Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
¹² Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹³ Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan.
¹⁴ School of Biological Sciences, Research Area of Ecology and Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
¹⁵ State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
¹⁶ School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

PMID: 36564901
DOI: 10.1111/pce.14524

Abstract

Within vascular plants, the partitioning of hydraulic resistance along the soil-to-leaf continuum affects transpiration and its response to environmental conditions. In trees, the fractional contribution of leaf hydraulic resistance (R_leaf ) to total soil-to-leaf hydraulic resistance (R_total ), or fR_leaf (=R_leaf /R_total ), is thought to be large, but this has not been tested comprehensively. We compiled a multibiome data set of fR_leaf using new and previously published measurements of pressure differences within trees in situ. Across 80 samples, fR_leaf averaged 0.51 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.46-0.57) and it declined with tree height. We also used the allometric relationship between field-based measurements of soil-to-leaf hydraulic conductance and laboratory-based measurements of leaf hydraulic conductance to compute the average fR_leaf for 19 tree samples, which was 0.40 (95% CI = 0.29-0.56). The in situ technique produces a more accurate descriptor of fR_leaf because it accounts for dynamic leaf hydraulic conductance. Both approaches demonstrate the outsized role of leaves in controlling tree hydrodynamics. A larger fR_leaf may help stems from loss of hydraulic conductance. Thus, the decline in fR_leaf with tree height would contribute to greater drought vulnerability in taller trees and potentially to their observed disproportionate drought mortality.

Keywords: drought response; hydrodynamic modelling; leaf hydraulic conductivity; plant hydraulics; plant water relations; whole-tree hydraulic conductance.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

1. Adams, H.D., Zeppel, M.J.B., Anderegg, W.R.L., Hartmann, H., Landhäusser, S.M., Tissue, D.T. et al. (2017) A multi-species synthesis of physiological mechanisms in drought-induced tree mortality. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1, 1285-1291.
1. Alarcón, J.J., Domingo, R., Green, S.R., Nicolás, E. & Torrecillas, A. (2003) Estimation of hydraulic conductance within field-grown apricot using sap flow measurements. Plant and Soil, 251, 125-135.
1. von Allmen, E.I., Sperry, J.S. & Bush, S.E. (2015) Contrasting whole-tree water use, hydraulics, and growth in a co-dominant diffuse-porous vs. ring-porous species pair. Trees, 29, 717-728.
1. Anderegg, W.R.L., Trugman, A.T., Badgley, G., Konings, A.G. & Shaw, J. (2020) Divergent forest sensitivity to repeated extreme droughts. Nature Climate Change, 10, 1091-1095.
1. Begg, J.E. & Turner, N.C. (1970) Water potential gradients in field tobacco. Plant Physiology, 46, 343-346.

Publication types

Actions
Actions

MeSH terms

Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions

Substances

Actions
Actions

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources
- Wiley

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

Leaves as bottlenecks: The contribution of tree leaves to hydraulic resistance within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum

Affiliations

Leaves as bottlenecks: The contribution of tree leaves to hydraulic resistance within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

References

REFERENCES

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources