1,1,2,7,13,- 1Leipzig, Institute of Biology, Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Leipzig, Germany (anvar.sanaei@uni-leipzig.de)
- 2German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- 3Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- 4Center for Tree Science, The Morton Arboretum, 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle, IL, 60532 USA
- 5Forest Botany, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Tharandt, Germany
- 6Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave, Laramie, WY, 82071 USA
- 7Department of Ecology, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- 8Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, 2 route du CNRS, 09200 09200, France
- 9CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, P. O. Box UP 63 KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana
- 10Ecology and Biodiversity, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
- 11Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalder Straße 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
- 12School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, 236 Tower Road, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
- 13Horticulture and Product Physiology, Wageningen University and Research, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands
- 14Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Research Group WILD, Brussels, Belgium
- 15Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
Drought stress constrains the productivity of terrestrial ecosystems and distribution of plant species. To withstand drought stress, plants have evolved a wide range of water-use strategies. Despite the critical function of roots in whole-plant water regulations, drought strategies have been primarily studied from an aboveground perspective. Our knowledge of how fine-root traits are related to aboveground hydraulic traits remains limited. Here, we compiled a global dataset comprising five aboveground plant hydraulic traits (the xylem water potential at 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity [P50], the water potential at turgor loss point [πtlp], maximum xylem conductivity per unit sapwood area [Ks], the leaf-to-sapwood area ratio [Al:As], and wood density [WD]) associated with water-use strategies and the four fine-root traits from the root economics space (mean root diameter [MRD], specific root length [SRL], root tissue density [SRL], and root nitrogen concentration [RN]). We then investigated how and to what extent the global diversity in ecological strategies of four root economics space traits relate to aboveground hydraulic traits contributing to drought resistance. We found a slight trend towards acquisitive woody species with higher RNC and lower RTD having lower drought resistance in aboveground tissues (less negative P50 and πtlp and higher Ks and Al:As). Outsourcing woody species with thicker roots displayed a tendency towards slightly higher drought resistance (more negative P50 and πtlp and higher Ks and Al:As) than thin-rooted woody species. The weakness of these relationships highlights that aboveground plant adaptations to drought might be largely independent from classical axes of fine root ecological strategies. This could indicate a decoupling between above- and belowground strategies of drought adaptations, or that other root traits could provide more efficient adaptations to drought stress and be more strongly coordinated with aboveground hydraulics.
Anvar Sanaei1*, Srijna Saxena1,2, Kevin E. Mueller3, M. Luke McCormack4, Bernhard Schuldt5, Daniel C. Laughlin6, Bruno H.P. Rosado7, Gregoire T. Freschet8, Shalom D. Addo-Danso9, Kathryn E. Barry10, Joana Bergmann11, Nico Eisenhauer1,2, Florentin Clemens Jaeger12, Hendrik Poorter13, Harry Olde Venterink14, Jorad De Vries15, Monique Weemstra15, Liesje Mommer15, Alexandra Weigelt1,2
How to cite: Sanaei, A., Saxena, S., Mueller, K. E., McCormack, M. L., Schuldt, B., Laughlin, D. C., Rosado, B. H., Freschet, G. T., Addo-Danso, S. D., Barry, K. E., Bergmann, J., Eisenhauer, N., Florentin Clemens, J., Poorter, H., Olde Venterink, H., De Vries, J., Weemstra, M., Mommer, L., and Weigelt, A. and the Anvar Sanaei, anvar.sanaei@uni-leipzig.de: On the relationship between root economics and plant hydraulic traits, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-14248, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-14248, 2026.
