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Novick KA, Ficklin DL, Grossiord C, Konings AG, Martínez-Vilalta J, Sadok W, Trugman AT, Williams AP, Wright AJ, Abatzoglou JT, Dannenberg MP, Gentine P, Guan K, Johnston MR, Lowman LEL, Moore DJP, McDowell NG. The impacts of rising vapour pressure deficit in natural and managed ecosystems. PLANT, CELL & ENVIRONMENT 2024; 47:3561-3589. [PMID: 38348610 DOI: 10.1111/pce.14846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2023] [Revised: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 08/16/2024]
Abstract
An exponential rise in the atmospheric vapour pressure deficit (VPD) is among the most consequential impacts of climate change in terrestrial ecosystems. Rising VPD has negative and cascading effects on nearly all aspects of plant function including photosynthesis, water status, growth and survival. These responses are exacerbated by land-atmosphere interactions that couple VPD to soil water and govern the evolution of drought, affecting a range of ecosystem services including carbon uptake, biodiversity, the provisioning of water resources and crop yields. However, despite the global nature of this phenomenon, research on how to incorporate these impacts into resilient management regimes is largely in its infancy, due in part to the entanglement of VPD trends with those of other co-evolving climate drivers. Here, we review the mechanistic bases of VPD impacts at a range of spatial scales, paying particular attention to the independent and interactive influence of VPD in the context of other environmental changes. We then evaluate the consequences of these impacts within key management contexts, including water resources, croplands, wildfire risk mitigation and management of natural grasslands and forests. We conclude with recommendations describing how management regimes could be altered to mitigate the otherwise highly deleterious consequences of rising VPD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly A Novick
- O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
| | - Darren L Ficklin
- Department of Geography, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
| | - Charlotte Grossiord
- Plant Ecology Research Laboratory (PERL), School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Community Ecology Unit, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape WSL, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Alexandra G Konings
- Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Jordi Martínez-Vilalta
- CREAF, Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Walid Sadok
- Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
| | - Anna T Trugman
- Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - A Park Williams
- Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Alexandra J Wright
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State University Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - John T Abatzoglou
- Management of Complex Systems Department, University of California, Merced, California, USA
| | - Matthew P Dannenberg
- Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
| | - Pierre Gentine
- Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
- Center for Learning the Earth with Artificial Intelligence and Physics (LEAP), Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
| | - Kaiyu Guan
- Agroecosystem Sustainability Center, Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumers, and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Miriam R Johnston
- Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
| | - Lauren E L Lowman
- Department of Engineering, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
| | - David J P Moore
- School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Nate G McDowell
- Atmospheric Sciences & Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, USA
- School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA
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Wu A, Anderegg LDL, Dawson TE, Trugman AT. Leaf trait coordination and variation of blue oak across topo-environmental scales. TREE PHYSIOLOGY 2023; 43:2098-2108. [PMID: 37847600 DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpad127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023]
Abstract
Trees are arguably the most diverse and complex macro-organisms on Earth. The equally diverse functions of trees directly impact fluxes of carbon, water and energy from the land surface. A number of recent studies have shed light on the substantial within-species variability across plant traits, including aspects of leaf morphology and plant allocation of photosynthates to leaf biomass. Yet, within-tree variability in leaf traits due to microclimatic variations, leaf hydraulic coordination across traits at different physiological scales and variations in leaf traits over a growing season remain poorly studied. This knowledge gap is stymieing the fundamental understanding of what drives trait variation and covariation from tissues to trees to landscapes. Here, we present an extensive dataset measuring within-tree heterogeneity in leaf traits in California's blue oak (Quercus douglasii) across an edaphic gradient and over the course of a growing season at an oak-grass savanna in Southern CA, USA. We found a high level of within-tree crown leaf area:sapwood area variation that was not attributable to sample height or aspect. We also found a higher level of trait integration at the tree level, rather than branch level, suggesting that trees optimize water use at the organismal level. Despite the large variance in traits within a tree crown and across trees, we did not find strong evidence for adaptive plasticity or acclimation in leaf morphological traits (e.g., changes to phenotype which increased fitness) across temporal and spatial water availability gradients. Collectively, our results highlight strong variation in drought-related physiology, but limited evidence for adaptive trait plasticity over shorter time scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angelica Wu
- Department of Integrative Biology, 3040 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Leander D L Anderegg
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, Noble Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Todd E Dawson
- Department of Integrative Biology, 3040 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Anna T Trugman
- Department of Geography, Ellison Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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Kerr KL, Fickle JC, Anderegg WRL. Decoupling of functional traits from intraspecific patterns of growth and drought stress resistance. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2023. [PMID: 37129078 DOI: 10.1111/nph.18937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2022] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Intraspecific variation in functional traits may mediate tree species' drought resistance, yet whether trait variation is due to genotype (G), environment (E), or G×E interactions remains unknown. Understanding the drivers of intraspecific trait variation and whether variation mediates drought response can improve predictions of species' response to future drought. Using populations of quaking aspen spanning a climate gradient, we investigated intraspecific variation in functional traits in the field as well as the influence of G and E among propagules in a common garden. We also tested for trait-mediated trade-offs in growth and drought stress tolerance. We observed intraspecific trait variation among the populations, yet this variation did not necessarily translate to higher drought stress tolerance in hotter/drier populations. Additionally, plasticity in the common garden was low, especially in propagules derived from the hottest/driest population. We found no growth-drought stress tolerance trade-offs and few traits exhibited significant relationships with mortality in the natural populations, suggesting that intraspecific trait variation among the traits measured did not strongly mediate responses to drought stress. Our results highlight the limits of trait-mediated responses to drought stress and the complex G×E interactions that may underlie drought stress tolerance variation in forests in dry environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly L Kerr
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
| | - Jaycie C Fickle
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
| | - William R L Anderegg
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
- Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
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Anderegg LDL. Why can't we predict traits from the environment? THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2023; 237:1998-2004. [PMID: 36308517 DOI: 10.1111/nph.18586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Accepted: 09/16/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Plant functional traits are powerful ecological tools, but the relationships between plant traits and climate (or environmental variables more broadly) are often remarkably weak. This presents a paradox: Plant traits govern plant interactions with their environment, but the environment does not strongly predict the traits of plants living there. Unpacking this paradox requires differentiating the mechanisms of trait variation and potential confounds of trait-environment relationships at different evolutionary and ecological scales ranging from within species to among communities. It also necessitates a more integrated understanding of physiological and evolutionary equifinality among many traits and plant strategies, and challenges us to understand how supposedly 'functional' traits integrate into a whole-organism phenotype in ways that may be largely orthogonal to environmental tolerances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leander D L Anderegg
- Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93117, USA
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Kerr KL, Anderegg LDL, Zenes N, Anderegg WRL. Quantifying within‐species trait variation in space and time reveals limits to trait‐mediated drought response. Funct Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.14112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kelly L. Kerr
- School of Biological Sciences University of Utah Salt Lake City UT USA
| | - Leander D. L. Anderegg
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology University of California Santa Barbara Santa Barbara CA USA
| | - Nicole Zenes
- School of Biological Sciences University of Utah Salt Lake City UT USA
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