Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Binks, Oliver
• Cernusak, Lucas A.
• Liddell, Michael
• Bradford, Matt
• Coughlin, Ingrid
• Bryant, Callum
• Palma, Ana C.
• Hoffmann, Luke
• Alam, Iftakharul
• Carle, Hannah J.
• Rowland, Lucy
• Oliveira, Rafael S.
• Laurance, Susan G. W.
• Mencuccini, Maurizio
• Meir, Patrick

Titel

Vapour pressure deficit modulates hydraulic function and structure of tropical rainforests under nonlimiting soil water supply

Ist Teil von

• The New phytologist, 2023-11, Vol.240 (4), p.1405-1420

Ort / Verlag

Lancaster: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Summary Atmospheric conditions are expected to become warmer and drier in the future, but little is known about how evaporative demand influences forest structure and function independently from soil moisture availability, and how fast‐response variables (such as canopy water potential and stomatal conductance) may mediate longer‐term changes in forest structure and function in response to climate change. We used two tropical rainforest sites with different temperatures and vapour pressure deficits (VPD), but nonlimiting soil water supply, to assess the impact of evaporative demand on ecophysiological function and forest structure. Common species between sites allowed us to test the extent to which species composition, relative abundance and intraspecific variability contributed to site‐level differences. The highest VPD site had lower midday canopy water potentials, canopy conductance ( g c ), annual transpiration, forest stature, and biomass, while the transpiration rate was less sensitive to changes in VPD; it also had different height–diameter allometry (accounting for 51% of the difference in biomass between sites) and higher plot‐level wood density. Our findings suggest that increases in VPD, even in the absence of soil water limitation, influence fast‐response variables, such as canopy water potentials and g c , potentially leading to longer‐term changes in forest stature resulting in reductions in biomass.