Mechanisms of xylem hydraulic recovery after drought in Eucalyptus saligna
13 páginas.- 7 figuras.- 92 referencias.- ; The mechanisms by which woody plants recover xylem hydraulic capacity after drought stress are not well understood, particularly with regard to the role of embolism refilling. We evaluated the recovery of xylem hydraulic capacity in young Eucalyptus saligna plants exposed to cycles of drought stress and rewatering. Plants were exposed to moderate and severe drought stress treatments, with recovery monitored at time intervals from 24 h to 6 months after rewatering. The percentage loss of xylem vessels due to embolism (PLV) was quantified at each time point using microcomputed tomography with stem water potential (Ψx) and canopy transpiration (Ec) measured before scans. Plants exposed to severe drought stress suffered high levels of embolism (47.38% ± 10.97% PLV) and almost complete canopy loss. No evidence of embolism refilling was observed at 24 h, 1 week, or 3 weeks after rewatering despite rapid recovery in Ψx. Recovery of hydraulic capacity was achieved over a 6-month period by growth of new xylem tissue, with canopy leaf area and Ec recovering over the same period. These findings indicate that E. saligna recovers slowly from severe drought stress, with potential for embolism to persist in the xylem for many months after rainfall events. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. ; This study was supported by an ARC Discovery Project (DP170100761) to BC and TJB and an ARC Future Fellowship (FT130101115) to BC. BM acknowledges support from the ARC Laureate Fellowship FL190100003. CMR‐D was supported by an Individual Fellowship from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement no. 751918‐AgroPHYS. JMRP was supported by the ORNL, managed by UT‐Battelle, LLC, for the DOE under contract DE‐AC05‐1008 00OR22725. ; Peer reviewed