Drought threatens plant growth and related ecosystem services. The emergence of plant drought stress under edaphic drought is well studied, whilst the importance of atmospheric drought only recently gained momentum. Yet, little is known about the interaction and relative contribution of edaphic and atmospheric drought on the emergence of plant drought stress. We conducted a gradient experiment, fully crossing gravimetric water content (GWC: maximum water holding capacity-permanent wilting point) and vapour pressure deficit (VPD: 1-2.25 kPa) using five wheat varieties from three species (Triticum monococcum, T. durum & T. aestivum). We quantified the occurrence of plant drought stress on molecular (abscisic acid), cellular (stomatal conductance), organ (leaf water potential) and stand level (evapotranspiration). Plant drought stress increased with decreasing GWC across all organizational levels. This effect was magnified nonlinearly by VPD after passing a critical threshold of soil water availability. At around 20%GWC (soil matric potential 0.012 MPa), plants lost their ability to regulate leaf water potential via stomata regulation, followed by the emergence of hydraulic dysfunction. The emergence of plant drought stress is characterized by changing relative contributions of soil versus atmosphere and their non-linear interaction. This highly non-linear response is likely to abruptly alter plant-related ecosystem services in a drying world.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/pce.15012 | DOI Listing |
Plant Physiol
January 2025
Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.
Global climate change leads to the increased occurrence of environmental stress (including drought and heat stress) during the vegetative and reproductive stages of cereal crop development. Thus, more attention should be given to developing new cereal cultivars with improved tolerance to environmental stress. However, during the development of new stress-tolerant cereal cultivars, the balance between improved stress responses (which occur at the expense of growth) and plant yield needs to be maintained.
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January 2025
Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Department of Plants and Crops, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium.
During drought, the formation of air bubbles known as embolisms in the water-conducting xylem reduces hydraulic conductivity, which can ultimately result in tree death. Accurately quantifying vulnerability to embolism formation is therefore essential for understanding tree hydraulics. Acoustic emission (AE) analysis offers a non-destructive method to monitor this process, yet the interpretation of captured signals remains debated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTree Physiol
January 2025
Forest Tree Breeding Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Research and Management Organization, Hitachi, Ibaraki 319-1301, Japan.
The selection of plant genotypes characterized by wellness and stable growth under drought-stress conditions amid ongoing climate change is an important challenge in forest tree breeding. The introduction of molecular markers will enable efficient selection of breeding materials that are resistant to drought stress in forest trees as well as in crop species. Japanese cedar, Cryptomeria japonica, the most dominant forest species in Japan, grows well on mesic sites and is characterized by intraspecific variation in its drought-stress response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Plant Sci
December 2024
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Centre for Animal Production and Aquaculture, Lodi, Italy.
The changing climate could expand northwards in Europe the autumn sowing of cool-season grain legumes to take advantage of milder winters and to escape the increasing risk of terminal drought. Greater frost tolerance is a key breeding target because sudden frosts following mild-temperature periods may produce high winter mortality of insufficiently acclimated plants. The increasing year-to-year climate variation hinders the field-based selection for frost tolerance.
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December 2024
School of Surveying and Land Information Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, China.
Introduction: In the context of climate variability, rapid and accurate estimation of winter wheat yield is essential for agricultural policymaking and food security. With advancements in remote sensing technology and deep learning, methods utilizing remotely sensed data are increasingly being employed for large-scale crop growth monitoring and yield estimation.
Methods: Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a new remote sensing metric that is closely linked to crop photosynthesis and has been applied to crop growth and drought monitoring.
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