Journal Article
Hydraulic variability of tropical forests is largely independent of water availability
Chris M. Smith‐Martin; Robert Muscarella; William M. Hammond; Steven Jansen; Timothy J. Brodribb; Brendan Choat; Daniel M. Johnson; German Vargas‐G; María Uriarte
Ecology Letters · Vol. 26, Issue 11 · pp. 1829-1839 · 2023
Abstract
Tropical rainforest woody plants have been thought to have uniformly low resistance to hydraulic failure and to function near the edge of their hydraulic safety margin (HSM), making these ecosystems vulnerable to drought; however, this may not be the case. Using data collected at 30 tropical forest sites for three key traits associated with drought tolerance, we show that site‐level hydraulic diversity of leaf turgor loss point, resistance to embolism (P 50 ), and HSMs is high across tropical forests and largely independent of water availability. Species with high HSMs (>1 MPa) and low P 50 values (