Drought intensity and duration interact to magnify losses in primary productivity

The increasing severity and frequency of drought pose serious threats to plant species worldwide. Yet, we lack a general understanding of how various intensities of droughts affect plant traits, in particular root traits. Here, using a meta-analysis of drought experiments (997 effect sizes from 76 papers), we investigate the effects of various intensities of droughts on some of the key morphological root traits. Our results show that root length, root mean diameter, and root area decline when drought is of severe or extreme intensity, whereas severe drought increases root tissue density. These patterns are most pronounced in trees compared to other plant functional groups. Moreover, the long duration of severe drought decreases root length in grasses and root mean diameter in legumes. The decline in root length and root diameter due to severe drought in trees was independent of drought duration. Our results suggest that morphological root traits respond strongly to increasing intensity of drought, which further depends on drought duration and may vary among plant functional groups. Our meta-analysis highlights the need for future studies to consider the interactive effects of drought intensity and drought duration for a better understanding of variable plant responses to drought.

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Publication Details

Journal
BFH: ARBOR
Published
2025-10-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.24451/arbor.12550
Primary Topic
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
Type
article
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article

Drought intensity and duration interact to magnify losses in primary productivity

Marcus Vinícius Cianciaruso, Sven Dahlke, William E. Rogers, H Abdoli et al.
BFH: ARBOR
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
article

Drought intensity and duration interact to magnify losses in primary productivity

Marcus Vinícius Cianciaruso, Sven Dahlke, William E. Rogers, H Abdoli, Daniela Hoss, Brooke B. Osborne, Robert M. Plowes, Rafael Otfinowski, Manjunatha H. Chandregowda, Laura W. Ploughe, Anja Linstädter, Lauchlan H. Fraser, A. Stämpfli, Tyson J. Terry, Darcy Galiano, Uffe N. Nielsen, Taryn L. Bauerle, Malesela Vincent Mokoka, Jeff Chieppa, Liv Guri Velle, Timothy Ohlert, Gastón R. Oñatibia, Kai Behn, Kate Wilkins, Michelle Tedder, Jenifer L. Yost, Viviana F. Bondaruk, Yadong Yang, Christiane Roscher, Cameron N. Carlyle, Michaela Zeiter, Dianela A. Calvo, Fernando T. Maestre, Laura Yahdjian, Raúl Ochoa‐Hueso, Martin C. Holdrege, D. Rodríguez, Michele Carbognani, Jüergen Kreyling, Miguel Castillo-García, Maggie Anderson, Michael E. Loik, Lucio Biancari, Amelia A. Wolf, Andrey V. Malyshev, Daniela Cusack, Ildikó Orbán, C. Greenville Aaron, Jennifer L. Williams, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Meghan L. Avolio, Mehdi Abedi, Forest Isbell, Alicia Kröpfl, Akira S. Mori, Carlos Martín Bruschetti, Ilka Beil, Seth M. Munson, Edwin I. Mudongo, Ingrid J. Slette, Lars Vesterdal, Andrew J. Felton, Rachel J. Standish, Angelika Kübert, Pål Thorvaldsen, Irmgard Blindow, Gregory S. Newman, Yuguang Ke, Amber C. Churchill, Cousins Sara A O, C. David McIntire, Laureano Gherardi, Sally A. Power, Sally E. Koerner, Claus Beier, Georg Wiehl, Marie Sünnemann, Antonio I. Arroyo, Lee H. Dietterich, Alejandro Loydi, Flavia A. Funk, Alyssa L. Young, Juan M. Zeberio, Meghan T. Hayden, Andrew Kulmatiski, Seton Bachle, Eric G. Lamb, Amgaa Batbaatar, Bráulio Almeida Santos, Karen H. Beard, Siri Vatsø Haugum, Michael Bahn, Meelis Pärtel, Liebao Han, Guadalupe Peter, Le Li, Cun Zheng Wei, Yolanda Pueyo, Pedro Daleo, Ruonan Shen, Osvaldo E. Sala, Eugene F. Kelly, David Pescador, Michael P. Schellenberg, Cristy Portales-Reyes, Peter Wilfahrt, Svenja Wanke, Golsa Rahmati, Smriti Pehim Limbu, Melinda D. Smith, Shirong Liu, Xiaoan Zuo, Xuechen Yang, Romà Ogaya, Juan M. Piñeiro-Guerra, Harald Auge, Alejandro Valdecantos, A. Jentsch, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Lara Souza, Yann Hautier, Nicholas J. Lyon, Suzanne M. Prober, Christiane Werner, Liesbeth van den Brink, Chong Xu, Steven Lee, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Scott L. Collins, Ana M. Sánchez, Katja Tielbörger, Daniel B. Metcalfe, Honghui Wu, Edward W. Bork, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Kerry M. Byrne, Pablo L. Peri, Baoku Shi, Richard P. Phillips, David C. Bartholomew, Qiang Yu, Haiyang Zhang, Josep Peñuelas, David W. Rowley, Marcelo Sternberg, James F. Cahill, Samuel E. Jordan, Anping Chen, Scott X. Chang, György Kröel-Dulay, Valério D. Pillar, Rory C. O’Connor, Elizabeth T. Borer, Angel Chen, Alan K. Knapp, Wei Sun, Glenda M. Wardle, Maud Tissink, Junwei Luan, F. Curtis Lubbe, Sasha C. Reed, Ping Yue, Grisel Longo, Andy Hector, Maren Dubbert, Hugh A. L. Henry, T’ai G. W. Forte, Amanda L Cordeiro, Nico Eisenhauer, Karen Castillioni, Juan Alberti, Yiqi Luo, Eric W. Seabloom, Jesús Pascual, Heidi Asbjornsen
article en

Abstract

The increasing severity and frequency of drought pose serious threats to plant species worldwide. Yet, we lack a general understanding of how various intensities of droughts affect plant traits, in particular root traits. Here, using a meta-analysis of drought experiments (997 effect sizes from 76 papers), we investigate the effects of various intensities of droughts on some of the key morphological root traits. Our results show that root length, root mean diameter, and root area decline when drought is of severe or extreme intensity, whereas severe drought increases root tissue density. These patterns are most pronounced in trees compared to other plant functional groups. Moreover, the long duration of severe drought decreases root length in grasses and root mean diameter in legumes. The decline in root length and root diameter due to severe drought in trees was independent of drought duration. Our results suggest that morphological root traits respond strongly to increasing intensity of drought, which further depends on drought duration and may vary among plant functional groups. Our meta-analysis highlights the need for future studies to consider the interactive effects of drought intensity and drought duration for a better understanding of variable plant responses to drought.

BFH: ARBOR
Openalex Percentile: Top 31%
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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