Abstract
Aims
The growing demand from forest managers is to identify silvicultural practices to overcome projected water scarcity during the next decades. One solution is to mix tree species in the same stand, thereby increasing resource partitioning and minimizing competition for limited soil water. This study investigates the mixture approach for Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl. and Pinus sylvestris L. during an extreme summer drought event.
Methods
During the summer drought event in 2016, we analyzed the isotopic signatures of large- and small-tree xylem and soil water throughout the soil profile to assess the depth of water uptake for both tree species. We also measured predawn leaf water potentials (PLWP) to assess water availability for individual tree species.
Results
When grown in pure stands, both species primarily utilized soil water near the surface. In contrast, partial niche complementarity for limited water resources between the two species in mixed stands resulted in less water constraint (i.e., less negative PLWP) for oak trees compared to pure stands, especially for small trees.
Conclusions
Results from this study show that contrasting water use strategies can change water availability for trees and could help some species, though not all, to cope with the water scarcity predicted in a changing climate.
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Abbreviations
- PLWP:
-
Predawn leaf water potential
- VWC:
-
Volumetric Water Content
- SWC:
-
Soil water content
- δ18O:
-
Isotopic signature of 18Oxygene
- ΨPLWP :
-
Predawn leaf water potential
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Acknowledgments
The experimental site where our study took place was installed and equipped thanks to the Centre Val-de-Loire region, the Loiret and the French National Forest Office (ONF).
The site belongs to SOERE F-ORE-T, which is supported annually by Ecofor, Allenvi and the French national research infrastructure, ANAEE-F (http://www.anaee-france.fr/fr/).
This work was carried out within the framework of the SATAN project (n°1660C0008, REACCTIF program), funded by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME).
The authors thank the certified facility in Functional Ecology (PTEF OC 081) from UMR 1137 and UR 1138 BEF at the INRA Nancy-Lorraine research center for preparing and carrying out the isotopic analyses. The PTEF facility is supported by the French National Research Agency through the ARBRE Laboratory of Excellence (ANR-11-LABX-0002-01). NJ Hasselquist would like to thank the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (Branch-point) and the Swedish Research Council (2015-04791) for financial support. We also thank Victor Evrard for his help with the isotopic analyses, Svenja Föster (BaSIEL) for her help with the cryogenic distillation vacuum line, Camille Couteau (Irstea, EFNO) for canopy sampling and Vincent Seigner (Irstea, EFNO) for his assistance in the field. We also thank Damien Bonal (INRA) for his helpful discussions.
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Appendices
Appendices
Isotopic signature of the soil samples from plots O57 (a) and O593 (b) for the three isotope campaigns (a and b) and soil depth and precipitation (mm) measured in these two plots (c and d). The three campaigns are represented by the vertical lines in c and d
Daily precipitation (blue bars, top windows) and temperature (black line, top windows) and Relative Soil Volumetric Water Content (bottom windows) at 20cm (solid line), 40cm (dashed line) and 60cm (dotted line) in depth in pure pine (1), mixed (2) and pure oak (3) stands. Arrows represent the sampling date for predawn leaf water potential (Ψ) and isotope (δ) measurements. The triple-graph (a, b and c) corresponds to the three plot repetitions for the three stand composition types
Daily precipitation (blue bars) and mean temperature (black line) for each plot in pure pine (a,b and c), mixed (d, e and f) and pure oak (g, h and i) stands
Volumetric Water Content (VWC) for each soil pit at 20 cm (solid line), 40 cm (dashed line) and 60 cm (dotted line) in depth for the three pure pine stands (O83, O200 and O333). Arrows indicate the sampling date for predawn leaf water potential (Ψ) and isotope (δ) measurements
Volumetric Water Content (VWC) for each soil pit at 20 cm (solid line), 40 cm (dashed line) and 60 cm (dotted line) in depth for the three mixed stands (O57, O216 and O598). Arrows indicate the sampling date for predawn leaf water potential (Ψ) and isotope (δ) measurements
Volumetric Water Content (VWC) for each soil pit at 20 cm (solid line), 40 cm (dashed line) and 60 cm (dotted line) in depth for the three pure oak stands (O12, O214 and O593). Arrows indicate the sampling date for predawn leaf water potential (Ψ) and isotope (δ) measurements
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Bello, J., Hasselquist, N.J., Vallet, P. et al. Complementary water uptake depth of Quercus petraea and Pinus sylvestris in mixed stands during an extreme drought. Plant Soil 437, 93–115 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-03951-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-03951-z