Thresholds for persistent leaf photochemical damage predict plant drought resilience in a tropical rainforest

Claire Fortunel; Clément Stahl; Sabrina Coste; Camille Ziegler; Géraldine Derroire; Sébastien Levionnois; Isabelle Maréchaux; Damien Bonal; Bruno Hérault; Fabien H Wagner; Lawren Sack; Jérôme Chave; Patrick Heuret; Steven Jansen; Grace John; Christine Scoffoni; Santiago Trueba; Megan K Bartlett

doi:10.1111/nph.18973

Thresholds for persistent leaf photochemical damage predict plant drought resilience in a tropical rainforest

New Phytol. 2023 Jul;239(2):576-591. doi: 10.1111/nph.18973. Epub 2023 May 24.

Authors

Claire Fortunel¹, Clément Stahl², Sabrina Coste², Camille Ziegler^{2

3}, Géraldine Derroire⁴, Sébastien Levionnois^{1

2}, Isabelle Maréchaux¹, Damien Bonal³, Bruno Hérault^{5

6

7}, Fabien H Wagner^{8

9}, Lawren Sack¹⁰, Jérôme Chave¹¹, Patrick Heuret¹, Steven Jansen¹², Grace John¹³, Christine Scoffoni¹⁴, Santiago Trueba¹⁵, Megan K Bartlett¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ AMAP (Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations), Université de Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, 34000, Montpellier, France.
² INRAE, UMR EcoFoG, CNRS, CIRAD, AgroParisTech, Université des Antilles, Université de Guyane, 97310, Kourou, France.
³ Université de Lorraine, AgroParisTech, INRAE, UMR Silva, 54000, Nancy, France.
⁴ CIRAD, UMR EcoFoG (AgroParistech, CNRS, INRAE, Université des Antilles, Université de la Guyane), Campus Agronomique, 97310, Kourou, French Guiana.
⁵ CIRAD, UPR Forêts et Sociétés, Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire.
⁶ Forêts et Sociétés, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, 34000, Montpellier, France.
⁷ Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny, INP-HB, Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire.
⁸ Institute of Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
⁹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
¹¹ CNRS, Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, IRD, UMR 5174 Evolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), 31062, Toulouse, France.
¹² Institute of Botany, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
¹³ Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA.
¹⁵ Université de Bordeaux, INRAE, UMR BIOGECO, Pessac, 33615, France.
¹⁶ Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.

PMID: 37222272
DOI: 10.1111/nph.18973

Abstract

Water stress can cause declines in plant function that persist after rehydration. Recent work has defined 'resilience' traits characterizing leaf resistance to persistent damage from drought, but whether these traits predict resilience in whole-plant function is unknown. It is also unknown whether the coordination between resilience and 'resistance' - the ability to maintain function during drought - observed globally occurs within ecosystems. For eight rainforest species, we dehydrated and subsequently rehydrated leaves, and measured water stress thresholds for declines in rehydration capacity and maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (F_v /F_m ). We tested correlations with embolism resistance and dry season water potentials (Ψ_MD ), and calculated safety margins for damage (Ψ_MD - thresholds) and tested correlations with drought resilience in sap flow and growth. Ψ thresholds for persistent declines in F_v /F_m , indicating resilience, were positively correlated with Ψ_MD and thresholds for leaf vein embolism. Safety margins for persistent declines in F_v /F_m , but not rehydration capacity, were positively correlated with drought resilience in sap flow. Correlations between resistance and resilience suggest that species' differences in performance during drought are perpetuated after drought, potentially accelerating shifts in forest composition. Resilience to photochemical damage emerged as a promising functional trait to characterize whole-plant drought resilience.

Keywords: drought; embolism resistance; hydraulics; photochemistry; recovery; rehydration; tropical.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Dehydration*
Droughts
Ecosystem
Plant Leaves
Rainforest*
Trees