Trade-off between leaf hydraulic efficiency and safety of 15 woody plants on the Loess Plateau
It will be helpful to deeply understand the acclimation of plants that clarify the tradeoff between hydraulic efficiency and safety.To the present,this tradeoff focuses on branches,but leaves which measured difficultly are overlooked.In fact,the tradeoff between leaf hydraulic efficiency and safety is controversial.In this study,15 woody species were chosen on the Loess Plateau,including 6 trees and 9 shrubs.Leaf hydraulic vulnerability to drought(P50),leaf hydraulic conductance per unit surface area(Kleaf-area)and leaf hydraulic conductance per mass(Kleaf-mass)of 15 species were measured.We found that all of the three traits showed no significant differences between trees and shrubs.Furthermore,P50 is not significantly correlated with Kleaf-area and Kleaf-mass.It shows that there is no tradeoff between leaf hydraulic efficiency and safety on the Loess Plateau.Lack of this tradeoff may be beneficial to plants in arid regions.It allows plants to maintain high hydraulic efficiency while high hydraulic safety.In the future study,more attentions should be paid to plant hydraulic traits in arid regions.And traits of leaves,branches,trunks,and roots should be combined to make a comprehensive understanding of plants to the changing environment.
acclimationleaf hydraulic conductanceleaf water potentialhydraulic vulnerability
万方数据
维普
