TY - JOUR

T1 - Desiccation and Mortality Dynamics in Seedlings of Different European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) Populations under Extreme Drought Conditions

AU - Bolte, Andreas

AU - Czajkowski, Tomasz

AU - Cocozza, Claudia

AU - Tognetti, Roberto

AU - de Miguel, Marina

AU - Psidova, Eva

AU - Ditmarova, Lubica

AU - Dinca, Lucian

AU - Delzon, Sylvain

AU - Cochard, Herve

AU - Ræbild, Anders

AU - de Luis, Martin

AU - Cvjetkovic, Branislav

AU - Heiri, Caroline

AU - Müller, Jürgen

PY - 2016/6/14

Y1 - 2016/6/14

N2 - European beech (Fagus sylvatica L., hereafter beech), one of the major native treespecies in Europe, is known to be drought sensitive. Thus, the identification of criticalthresholds of drought impact intensity and duration are of high interest for assessingthe adaptive potential of European beech to climate change in its native range. Ina common garden experiment with one-year-old seedlings originating from centraland marginal origins in six European countries (Denmark, Germany, France, Romania,Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Spain), we applied extreme drought stress and observeddesiccation and mortality processes among the different populations and related them toplant water status (predawn water potential, 9PD) and soil hydraulic traits. For the lethaldrought assessment, we used a critical threshold of soil water availability that is reachedwhen 50% mortality in seedling populations occurs (LD50SWA). We found significantpopulation differences in LD50SWA (10.5–17.8%), and mortality dynamics that suggesta genetic difference in drought resistance between populations. The LD50SWA valuescorrelate significantly with the mean growing season precipitation at population origins,but not with the geographic margins of beech range. Thus, beech range marginality maybe more due to climatic conditions than to geographic range. The outcome of this studysuggests the genetic variation has a major influence on the varying adaptive potential ofthe investigated populations.

AB - European beech (Fagus sylvatica L., hereafter beech), one of the major native treespecies in Europe, is known to be drought sensitive. Thus, the identification of criticalthresholds of drought impact intensity and duration are of high interest for assessingthe adaptive potential of European beech to climate change in its native range. Ina common garden experiment with one-year-old seedlings originating from centraland marginal origins in six European countries (Denmark, Germany, France, Romania,Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Spain), we applied extreme drought stress and observeddesiccation and mortality processes among the different populations and related them toplant water status (predawn water potential, 9PD) and soil hydraulic traits. For the lethaldrought assessment, we used a critical threshold of soil water availability that is reachedwhen 50% mortality in seedling populations occurs (LD50SWA). We found significantpopulation differences in LD50SWA (10.5–17.8%), and mortality dynamics that suggesta genetic difference in drought resistance between populations. The LD50SWA valuescorrelate significantly with the mean growing season precipitation at population origins,but not with the geographic margins of beech range. Thus, beech range marginality maybe more due to climatic conditions than to geographic range. The outcome of this studysuggests the genetic variation has a major influence on the varying adaptive potential ofthe investigated populations.

U2 - 10.3389/fpls.2016.00751

DO - 10.3389/fpls.2016.00751

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27379105

VL - 7

JO - Frontiers in Plant Science

JF - Frontiers in Plant Science

SN - 1664-462X

M1 - 751

ER -