The Influences of Drought and Pathogenic Fungi Infestation on Embolism Formation and Propagation in Quercus douglasii
Abstract
Drought can have severe effects on plant communities by reducing plant productivity and making plants more susceptible to pathogens, which results in extensive forest dieback. Understanding biotic interactions and vulnerability to drought will aide in future forest climate impacts. We investigated the intraspecific variation of vulnerability to embolism of Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii) a California native species. We quantified vulnerability to embolism of individuals from two common oak gardens in different climate regions across an aridity gradient and the corresponding wild populations. One garden showed evidence of a pathogen and the other healthy. Through the use of the new optical method, we were able to visualize leaf and stem embolism to calculate p50, a critical hydraulic trait and an indicator of vulnerability to drought. We find there is no genetic variation between populations and no local adaptation to vulnerability to embolism. We attribute differences in vulnerability to the presence and absence of the observed pathogen. This analysis has allowed us a better understanding of how biotic factors play a larger role in a plant's water transport system that limits the plant's ability to move water and how drought might influence future landscapes.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.B33F2534D
- Keywords:
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- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0439 Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0466 Modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0476 Plant ecology;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES