From growth potential to drought survival: a trait‐ and time‐based framework for plant water economics across vascular species
A framework of traits and strategies for drought adaptation is critical for understanding the effects of climate change on natural and cultivated plant communities. The 'growth potential - stress survival' trade-off, a key concept in ecology, underpins plant ecological strategies but lacks a time dimension that is crucial to plant responses to drought. We built a three-phase physiological model incorporating both plant traits and time as a gradient of decreasing water availability, which allowed the identification of traits involved in maximizing growth potential (Phase I), growth/turgor maintenance during drought (Phase II - drought resistance), or survival after growth cessation (Phase III - drought survival). Modelling plant water use for annuals, perennials, resurrection, and succulent species revealed a trade-off between water use in Phases I-II (water acquisition associated with tissue dehydration avoidance) and Phase III duration (water conservation associated with water storage capacity and/or tissue dehydration/desiccation tolerance). This trade-off underpins a novel framework of plant water use economics among and within species. As growth potential and growth/turgor maintenance, that is, drought resistance, trade-off with drought survival duration, a time-informed framework considering the balance between productivity and drought resilience is required in plant growth models and in breeding efforts for plant drought adaptation.
Authors
- Jordi Martínez‐vilalta
- Alistair Leverett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7064-1917)
- Karim Barkaoui
- Vincent Vadez
- Florence Volaire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7011-6557)
- Louise H. Comas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1674-4595)
- Andrea Carminati (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7415-0480)
- Sean M. Gleason (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5607-4741)
- Rose A. Marks (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7102-5959)
- J. Scott Stewart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4567-8387)
- Marc Carriquí
- Aude Coupel‐Ledru
- Sandra Bucci
- Maurizio Mencuccini
- Lucy Rowland
- Robert J. Griffin‐Nolan
Institutions
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (FR)
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- École Pratique des Hautes Études (FR)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco (AR)
- California State University, Chico (US)
- Centre d'Etude Regional pour l'Amelioration de l'Adaptation a la Secheresse (SN)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (FR)
- Amélioration Génétique et Adaptation des Plantes méditerranéennes et tropicales (FR)
- Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications (ES)
- Institut Agro Montpelier (FR)
- Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (AU)
- Services déconcentrés d'appui à la recherche Occitanie-Montpellier (FR)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Universitat de les Illes Balears (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- New Phytologist
- Published
- 2026-01-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70922
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 36.62