Distinct xylem responses to acute vs prolonged drought in pine trees.

Increasing dryness challenges trees' ability to maintain water transport to the leaves. Most plant hydraulics models use a static xylem response to water stress. Yet, in reality, lower soil moisture and warmer temperatures during growing seasons feed back onto xylem development.

Interannual variations in needle and sapwood traits of branches under an experimental drought.

In the southwestern USA, recent large-scale die-offs of conifers raise the question of their resilience and mortality under droughts. To date, little is known about the interannual structural response to droughts. We hypothesized that piñon pines () respond to drought by reducing the drop of leaf water potential in branches from year to year through needle morphological adjustments.

Measuring Tree Properties and Responses Using Low-Cost Accelerometers.

Trees play a crucial role in the water, carbon and nitrogen cycle on local, regional and global scales. Understanding the exchange of momentum, heat, water, and CO 2 between trees and the atmosphere is important to assess the impact of drought, deforestation and climate change. Unfortunately, ground measurements of tree properties such as mass and canopy interception of precipitation are often expensive or difficult due to challenging environments.