The role of ecophysiological traits in driving biomass growth of Eucalyptus genetic materials with different drought tolerances
Water deficit constrains the maximum productivity of forest plantations, even under optimal silvicultural practices and genetic selection. Breeding programs have used clonal genetic materials to enhance their drought resistance by identifying key plant mechanisms mediated by ecophysiological traits that confer resilience to water stress. We assessed how ecophysiological traits influence the biomass growth of Eucalyptus genetic materials with different levels of drought tolerance. We contrasted two genetic materials: highly productive Eucalyptus urophylla (A1) and drought-resistant Eucalyptus grandis × E. camaldulensis (C3). We analyzed 58 ecophysiological traits, categorized into six functional groups. We modeled biomass growth as a function of these traits using random forest regression models. Our results showed similar key drivers for both genetic materials, but with different responses depending on genotype. Biomass growth in A1 was primarily associated with leaf-related traits and water use, whereas biomass growth in C3 was linked to root-related ecophysiological traits and trade-offs between structural investment and growth. Overall, our findings provide actionable insights for Eucalyptus breeding programs by identifying ecophysiological functional traits that help distinguish the high-yielding and the drought-tolerant genetic materials evaluated in this study. Incorporating these traits into selection criteria can enhance the predictability and long-term performance of genetic materials under increasingly variable climatic conditions.
Authors
- Robert M. Hubbard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2601-1798)
- Graziela Baptista Vidaurre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9285-7105)
- Otávio Camargo Campoe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9810-8834)
- James Stahl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5026-7390)
- Túlio Barroso Queiroz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0208-1225)
- Isáira Leite e Lopes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7428-5553)
- Kelly Marianne Guimarães Pereira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2886-8795)
- Josiana Jussara Nazaré Basílio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7597-2942)
- Rafaela Lorenzato Carneiro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3320-8521)
- Natielle Gomes Cordeiro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8460-4589)
- Fernanda Leite Cunha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7707-0910)
- Gabriela Gonçalves Moreira
- Tatiani Maria Pech (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5304-3202)
- Guerric Le Maire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5227-958X)
- Geovanni Malatesta Barros (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8824-5187)
- Fábio Akira Mori (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7468-018X)
- Joannès Guillemot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4385-7656)
- Clayton Alcarde Álvares (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7731-6327)
- José Luiz Ferraresso Conti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6812-6070)
- Marco Aurélio Figura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9740-7717)
- Sofia Maria Gonçalves Rocha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5199-0962)
- Eduardo Moré de Mattos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6811-3827)
- Hyngrid Jaiely Araújo Félix
- José Luiz Stape
- Leidiane Manoel Alves
Institutions
- Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (BR)
- Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (FR)
- Universidade Federal de Lavras (BR)
- University of Georgia (US)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- Institut Agro Montpellier (FR)
- Universidade Estadual de Mato Grosso do Sul (BR)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Ecologie fonctionnelle & biogéochimie des sols & des agro-systèmes (FR)
- Suzano (Brazil) (BR)
- Forest Science and Research Institute (BR)
- Rocky Mountain Research Station (US)
- Instituto Federal do Espírito Santo (BR)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (BR)
- Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) (BR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
- Published
- 2026-09-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111490
- Primary Topic
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00