Mechanisms of plant survival and mortality during drought: why do some plants survive while others succumb to drought?

By Nathan G. McDowell, W. Pockman, C. Allen, D. Breshears, N. Cobb, Thomas E. Kolb, J. Plaut, J. Sperry, A. West, David G. Williams and 1 more. New Phytologist, 2008

4,192 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a8d4e645455a0944323882ee1ad75899546bee35

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Citations in the corpus

Biological constraints on water transport in the soil–plant–atmosphere system (2013, background): “However, the various components of the SPAC respond to environmental changes also over longer time scales, at which individuals acclimate and grow, and species composition changes [22,23].”
Plant drought survival under climate change and strategies to improve perennial grasses. A review (2016, background): “In particular, the hydraulic thresholds of mortality in perennial grasses should be investigated with recent methodological developments that allow the measurement of vulnerability to cavitation associated with drought survival in trees (McDowell et al. 2008; Reich 2014) (Lens et al. 2013).”
Modeling plant–water interactions: an ecohydrological overview from the cell to the global scale (2016, background): “The permanent hydraulic failure of vascular transport and carbon starvation because of exhaustion or impossibility to access NSC or a combination of these mechanisms have been hypothesized as reasons for plant mortality.(244,245) Recent evidence supports an earlier occurrence of hydraulic failure an”
Disentangling the effect of competition, CO2 and climate on intrinsic water‐use efficiency and tree growth (2016, background): “Journal of Ecology © 2016 British Ecological Society Drought causes a decrease in soil water potential, which, among other physiological mechanisms, reduces trees’ photosynthetic carbon uptake and, thus, growth, as a result of stomatal closure to prevent hydraulic failure (McDowell et al. 2008).”
Are Scots pine forest edges particularly prone to drought-induced mortality? (2018, background): “…of climate change and associated ‘hotter droughts’, an increased frequency of drought-induced forest die-back seems likely (Adams et al 2009, 2015, Allen et al 2010, 2015, Bennett et al 2015, Bonan 2008, Breshears et al 2005, Cailleret et al 2017, Martı́nezVilalta et al 2012, McDowell et al 2008).”
The Urban Environment Can Modify Drought Stress of Small-Leaved Lime (Tilia cordata Mill.) and Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) (2016, background): “High water stress can induce a change in tree growth with modified tree allometry [26,27], overall reduced growth [28], and tree die-off [29,30].”
The impact of precipitation change on nitrogen cycling in a semi-arid ecosystem (2014, background): “Changes in precipitation can induce shifts in the structure of plant communities (Zak et al. 2003; Breshears et al. 2005; Mueller et al. 2005; McDowell et al. 2008; Allen et al. 2010; Kardol et al. 2010) that may also alter ecosys-”
Chronic historical drought legacy exacerbates tree mortality and crown dieback during acute heatwave-compounded drought (2018, background): “Climatological drought and warming events are categorized in a variety of ways based on their duration, frequency, and intensity, and these have varying effects on trees and forests (McDowell et al 2008, Barbeta and Peñuelas 2016).”
Structural diversity as a predictor of ecosystem function (2019, background): “Maximum canopy height ( i.e. physical volume) is representative of the physiological constraints imposed by climate (McDowell et al 2008) and is an indicator of environmental harshness (Marks et al 2016), whichmay not be reflected bymean canopy height (i.e. averaging plot-level height across canopy…”
Smaller, faster stomata: scaling of stomatal size, rate of response, and stomatal conductance (2013, background): “Under severe water deficits resulting from high evaporative demand and/or dry soil, plants rely upon full stomatal closure and a highly waterimpermeable leaf cuticle to minimize water loss (Hinckley et al., 1980; McDowell et al., 2008).”
Drought-mortality relationships for tropical forests. (2010, background): “…effects of extended moisture stress on carbon assimilation and storage in large trees may make them more vulnerable to disease, or to carbon starvation, as has been claimed for droughtrelated mortality in at least one subtropical site following extended severe drought (McDowell et al., 2008).”
Response of vegetation to drought time-scales across global land biomes (2012, background): “It is noteworthy that the highest influence of drought on vegetation identified in arid areas does not imply necessarily that plant communities from those areas aremore vulnerable to drought than those dominant in humid biomes (3, 10).”
Multiple strategies for drought survival among woody plant species (2016, background): “The hydraulic failure hypothesis suggests that drought reduces plant water potential such that the xylem water column undergoes catastrophic cavitation, ceasing water supply to the leaves (Sperry, Donnelly & Tyree 1988; Tyree & Sperry 1989; McDowell et al. 2008).”