Functional traits and water transport strategies in lowland tropical rainforest trees
Apgaua, Deborah M.G., Ishida, François Y., Tng, David Y.P., Laidlaw, Melinda J., Santos, Rubens M., Rumman, Rizwana, Eamus, Derek, Holtum, Joseph A.M., and Laurance, Susan G.W. (2015) Functional traits and water transport strategies in lowland tropical rainforest trees. PLoS ONE, 10 (6). e0130799. pp. 1-19.
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Abstract
Understanding how tropical rainforest trees may respond to the precipitation extremes predicted in future climate change scenarios is paramount for their conservation and management. Tree species clearly differ in drought susceptibility, suggesting that variable water transport strategies exist. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, we examined the hydraulic variability in trees in a lowland tropical rainforest in north-eastern Australia. We studied eight tree species representing broad plant functional groups (one palm and seven eudicot mature-phase, and early-successional trees). We characterised the species’ hydraulic system through maximum rates of volumetric sap flow and velocities using the heat ratio method, and measured rates of tree growth and several stem, vessel, and leaf traits. Sap flow measures exhibited limited variability across species, although early-successional species and palms had high mean sap velocities relative to most mature-phase species. Stem, vessel, and leaf traits were poor predictors of sap flow measures. However, these traits exhibited different associations in multivariate analysis, revealing gradients in some traits across species and alternative hydraulic strategies in others. Trait differences across and within tree functional groups reflect variation in water transport and drought resistance strategies. These varying strategies will help in our understanding of changing species distributions under predicted drought scenarios.
Item ID: | 39257 |
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Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
Keywords: | rainforest trees, functional traits, drought, water transport |
Additional Information: | © 2015 Apgaua et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Funders: | ARC Discovery Project, ARC Future Fellowship, Skyrail Rainforest Foundation, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), CAPES Foundation, Brazilian Ministry of Education |
Projects and Grants: | ARC DP130104092, ARC FT130101319 |
Date Deposited: | 25 Jun 2015 03:10 |
FoR Codes: | 06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0602 Ecology > 060202 Community Ecology (excl Invasive Species Ecology) @ 30% 06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0607 Plant Biology > 060705 Plant Physiology @ 30% 05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 0501 Ecological Applications > 050101 Ecological Impacts of Climate Change @ 40% |
SEO Codes: | 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9603 Climate and Climate Change > 960305 Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change @ 100% |
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