Relationship between wind speed and plant hydraulics at the global scale

Pengcheng He; Qing Ye; Kailiang Yu; Xiaorong Liu; Hui Liu; Xingyun Liang; Shidan Zhu; Han Wang; Junhua Yan; Ying-Ping Wang; Ian J Wright

doi:10.1038/s41559-024-02603-5

Relationship between wind speed and plant hydraulics at the global scale

Nat Ecol Evol. 2025 Jan 2. doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02603-5. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Pengcheng He¹, Qing Ye^{2

3}, Kailiang Yu^{4

5}, Xiaorong Liu⁶, Hui Liu¹, Xingyun Liang¹, Shidan Zhu⁷, Han Wang⁸, Junhua Yan¹, Ying-Ping Wang^{1

9}, Ian J Wright^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Plant Conservation and Utilization in Southern China, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Plant Conservation and Utilization in Southern China, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China. [email protected].
³ College of Life Sciences, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, China. [email protected].
⁴ Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁵ High Meadows Environmental Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
⁶ Sichuan University of Arts and Science, Dazhou, China.
⁷ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, Guangxi Colleges and Universities Key Laboratory for Cultivation and Utilization of Subtropical Forest Plantation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning, China.
⁸ Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
⁹ CSIRO Environment, Clayton South, Victoria, Australia.
¹⁰ ARC Centre for Plant Success in Nature & Agriculture, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
¹¹ School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

PMID: 39747479
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02603-5

Abstract

Wind is an important ecological factor for plants as it can increase evapotranspiration and cause dehydration. However, the impact of wind on plant hydraulics at a global scale remains unclear. Here we compiled plant key hydraulic traits, including water potential at 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity (P₅₀), xylem-specific hydraulic conductivity (K_S), leaf area to sapwood area ratio (A_L/A_S) and conduit diameter (D) with 2,786 species-at-site combinations across 1,922 woody species at 469 sites worldwide and analysed their correlations with wind speed. Even with other climatic factors controlled (for example, moisture index, temperature and vapour pressure deficit), wind speed clearly affected plant hydraulics; for example, on average, species from windier sites constructed sapwood with smaller D and lower K_S that was more resilient to drought (more negative P₅₀), deploying less leaf total area for a given sapwood cross-section. Species with these traits may be at an advantage under future climates with higher wind speeds.

Abstract

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