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- Title
Hydraulic safety predicts long-term growth of economical timber tree species planted in a degraded tropical karst area.
- Authors
Huang, Dong-Liu; Li, Zhong-Guo; Xiang, Wei; Cao, Kun-Fang; Zhu, Shi-Dan
- Abstract
Key message: Xylem hydraulic safety is a good predictor of long-term growth of the economical tropical timber tree species planted in the degraded tropical karst areas. Planting native economical timber tree species in the degraded dry tropical karst areas has been proven to be an effective restoration way. However, drought is the key limiting factor influencing growth performance of the reforestation tree species in such habitats. In this study, we investigated long-term growth rate of seven precious timber tree species in a tropical rocky desertification area three decades after planting, and measured a series of hydraulic-related traits for these species. By examining hydraulic-growth relationships across the seven species, we aimed to explore whether hydraulic traits can be used to predict tree growth. Our results showed that long-term growth rate was significantly related to xylem water potential causing 88% loss of hydraulic conductivity and hydraulic safety margin under extreme drought. However, it was not associated with hydraulic conductivity, Huber value, wood density, and xylem anatomical traits. Additionally, there was no trade-off between hydraulic efficiency and safety, with several timber tree species showing both high hydraulic conductivity and cavitation resistance. Our results suggest that the hydraulic safety-related traits are good predictor of long-term growth rate of the economical timber tree species planted in degraded dry karst areas, thus providing guidelines to improve the efficiency of future ecological restoration.
- Subjects
TREE planting; PLANT species; KARST; HYDRAULIC conductivity; TIMBER; TREE growth
- Publication
Trees: Structure & Function, 2022, Vol 36, Issue 5, p1497
- ISSN
0931-1890
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00468-022-02303-2