The need to decipher plant drought stress along the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum

Schweiger, Andreas; Zimmermann, Telse; Poll, Christian; Marhan, Sven; Vinzent, Leyrer,; Berauer, Bernd J.

doi:10.1111/oik.10136

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…These would be experiments, and measurements of key response variables (e.g. Schweiger et al, 2023), designed to explicitly test mechanisms often only inferred from past drought studies (e.g. Oram et al, 2023, see Gilbert & Medina, 2016 for a similar call for crop species).…”

Section: How C An Droug Ht E Xperiments B E Improved?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Field experiments have enhanced our understanding of drought impacts on terrestrial ecosystems—But where do we go from here?

Knapp,

Condon,

Folks

et al. 2023

Functional Ecology

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We review results from field experiments that simulate drought, an ecologically impactful global change threat that is predicted to increase in magnitude, extent, duration and frequency. Our goal is to address, from primarily an ecosystem perspective, the questions ‘What have we learned from drought experiments?’ and ‘Where do we go from here?’. Drought experiments are among the most numerous climate change manipulations and have been deployed across a wide range of biomes, although most are conducted in short‐statured, water‐limited ecosystems. Collectively, these experiments have enabled ecologists to quantify the negative responses to drought that occur for most aspects of ecosystem structure and function. Multiple meta‐analyses of responses have also enabled comparisons of relative effect sizes of drought across hundreds of sites, particularly for carbon cycle metrics. Overall, drought experiments have provided strong evidence that ecosystem sensitivity to drought increases with aridity, but that plant traits associated with aridity are not necessarily predictive of drought resistance. There is also intriguing evidence that as drought magnitude or duration increases to extreme levels, plant strategies may shift from drought tolerance to drought escape/avoidance. We highlight three areas where more drought experiments are needed to advance our understanding. First, because drought is intensifying in multiple ways, experiments are needed that address alterations in drought magnitude versus duration, timing and/or frequency (individually and interactively). Second, drivers of drought may be shifting—from precipitation deficits to rising atmospheric demand for water—and disentangling how ecosystems respond to changes in hydrological ‘supply versus demand’ is critical for understanding drought impacts in the future. Finally, more attention should be focussed on post‐drought recovery periods since legacies of drought can affect ecosystem functioning much longer than the drought itself. We conclude with a call for a fundamental shift in the focus of drought experiments from those designed primarily as ‘response experiments’, quantifying the magnitude of change in ecosystem structure and function, to more ‘mechanistic experiments’—those that explicitly manipulate ecological processes or attributes thought to underpin drought responses. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Section: How C An Droug Ht E Xperiments B E Improved?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Field experiments have enhanced our understanding of drought impacts on terrestrial ecosystems—But where do we go from here?

Knapp,

Condon,

Folks

et al. 2023

Functional Ecology

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“…Plants require water to perform basic metabolism. Importantly, relative water balance within a plant is the result of both water intake from the soil and water loss at the leaf surface (Schweiger et al 2023). The later occurs via transpiration, which plants regulate by reducing their stomatal aperture (Von Caemmerer & Baker 2007; Lin et al 2015; McAdam & Brodribb 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulating atmospheric drought: Silica gel packets dehumidify mesocosm microclimates

Varghese,

Aguirre,

Isbell

et al. 2023

Preprint

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As global temperatures rise, droughts are becoming more frequent and severe. To predict how drought might affect plant communities, ecologists have traditionally designed experiments with controlled watering regimes and rainout shelters. Both treatments have proven effective for simulating soil drought. However, neither are designed to directly modify atmospheric drought.Here, we detail the efficacy of a silica gel atmospheric drought treatment in outdoor mesocosms with and without a cooccurring soil drought treatment. At California State University, Los Angeles, we monitored relative humidity (RH), temperature, and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) every 10 minutes for five months in a bare-ground experiment featuring mesocosms treated with soil drought (reduced watering) and/or atmospheric drought (silica packets suspended 12 cm above soil).We found that silica packets dehumidified these microclimates most effectively (-5% RH) when combined with reduced soil water, regardless of the ambient humidity levels of the surrounding air. Further, packets increased microclimate VPD most effectively (+0.4 kPa) when combined with reduced soil water and ambient air temperatures above 20°C. Finally, packets simulated atmospheric drought most consistently when replaced within three days of deployment.Our results demonstrate the use of silica packets as effective dehumidification agents in outdoor drought experiments. We emphasize that incorporating atmospheric drought in existing soil drought experiments can improve our understandings of the ecological impacts of drought.

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Simulating atmospheric drought: Silica gel packets dehumidify mesocosm microclimates

Varghese,

Aguirre,

Isbell

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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As global temperatures rise, droughts are becoming more frequent and severe. To predict how drought might affect plant communities, ecologists have traditionally designed drought experiments with controlled watering regimes and rainout shelters. Both treatments have proven effective for simulating soil drought. However, neither are designed to directly modify atmospheric drought. Here, we detail the efficacy of a silica gel atmospheric drought treatment in outdoor mesocosms with and without a co‐occurring soil drought treatment. At California State University, Los Angeles, we monitored relative humidity, temperature, and vapor pressure deficit every 10 min for 5 months in bare‐ground, open‐top mesocosms treated with soil drought (reduced watering) and/or atmospheric drought (silica dehumidification packets suspended 12 cm above soil). We found that silica packets dehumidified these mesocosm microclimates most effectively (−5% RH) when combined with reduced soil water, regardless of the ambient humidity levels of the surrounding air. Further, packets increased microclimate vapor pressure deficit most effectively (+0.4 kPa) when combined with reduced soil water and ambient air temperatures above 20°C. Finally, packets simulated atmospheric drought most consistently when replaced within 3 days of deployment. Our results demonstrate the use of silica packets as effective dehumidification agents in outdoor drought experiments. We emphasize that incorporating atmospheric drought in existing soil drought experiments can improve our understandings of the ecological impacts of drought.

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The need to decipher plant drought stress along the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum

Cited by 5 publications

References 75 publications

Field experiments have enhanced our understanding of drought impacts on terrestrial ecosystems—But where do we go from here?

Field experiments have enhanced our understanding of drought impacts on terrestrial ecosystems—But where do we go from here?

Simulating atmospheric drought: Silica gel packets dehumidify mesocosm microclimates

Simulating atmospheric drought: Silica gel packets dehumidify mesocosm microclimates

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