Where do leaf water leaks come from? Trade‐offs underlying the variability in minimum conductance across tropical savanna species with contrasting growth strategies

Summary Plants continue to lose water from their leaves even after complete stomatal closure. Although this minimum conductance (gleaf‐res) has substantial impacts on strategies of water use and conservation, little is known about the potential drivers underlying the variability of this trait across...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The New phytologist 2021-02, Vol.229 (3), p.1415-1430
Main Authors: Machado, Renan, Loram‐Lourenço, Lucas, Farnese, Fernanda Santos, Alves, Rauander Douglas Ferreira Barros, Sousa, Letícia Ferreira, Silva, Fabiano Guimarães, Filho, Sebastião Carvalho Vasconcelos, Torres‐Ruiz, José M., Cochard, Hervé, Menezes‐Silva, Paulo Eduardo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assimilation
Brazil
Carbon
carbon assimilation
Carbon fixation
Cerrado
Conductance
cuticle permeance
Cuticles
Dehydration
Drought
Epidermis
Grassland
hydraulic failure
leaf mortality
Leaks
Leaves
Life Sciences
minimum transpiration
Plant Leaves
Plant Stomata
Plant Transpiration
Resistance
Savannahs
Skin
Species
Species diversity
Stomata
stomatal density
Survival
Tropical climate
Variability
Variation
Vegetal Biology
Water
Water conservation
Water loss
Water shortages
Water use
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Summary:Summary Plants continue to lose water from their leaves even after complete stomatal closure. Although this minimum conductance (gleaf‐res) has substantial impacts on strategies of water use and conservation, little is known about the potential drivers underlying the variability of this trait across species. We thus untangled the relative contribution of water leaks from the cuticle and stomata in order to investigate how the variability in leaf morphological and anatomical traits is related to the variation in gleaf‐res and carbon assimilation capacity across 30 diverse species from the Brazilian Cerrado. In addition to cuticle permeance, water leaks from stomata had a significant impact on gleaf‐res. The differential pattern of stomata distribution in the epidermis was a key factor driving this variation, suggesting the existence of a trade‐off between carbon assimilation and water loss through gleaf‐res. For instance, higher gleaf‐res, observed in fast‐growing species, was associated with the investment in small and numerous stomata, which allowed higher carbon assimilation rates but also increased water leaks, with negative impacts on leaf survival under drought. Variation in cuticle structural properties was not linked to gleaf‐res. Our results therefore suggest the existence of a trade‐off between carbon assimilation efficiency and dehydration tolerance at foliar level.
ISSN:0028-646X
1469-8137
DOI:10.1111/nph.16941