How tree roots respond to drought

By I. Brunner, Claude Herzog, M. A. Dawes, M. Arend, C. Sperisen. Frontiers in Plant Science, 2015

737 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ongoing climate change is characterized by increased temperatures and altered precipitation patterns. In addition, there has been an increase in both the frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events such as drought. Episodes of drought induce a series of interconnected effects, all of which have the potential to alter the carbon balance of forest ecosystems profoundly at different scales of plant organization and ecosystem functioning. During recent years, considerable progress has been made in the understanding of how aboveground parts of trees respond to drought and how these responses affect carbon assimilation. In contrast, processes of belowground parts are relatively underrepresented in research on climate change. In this review, we describe current knowledge about responses of tree roots to drought. Tree roots are capable of responding to drought through a variety of strategies that enable them to avoid and tolerate stress. Responses include root biomass adjustments, anatomical alterations, and physiological acclimations. The molecular mechanisms underlying these responses are characterized to some extent, and involve stress signaling and the induction of numerous genes, leading to the activation of tolerance pathways. In addition, mycorrhizas seem to play important protective roles. The current knowledge compiled in this review supports the view that tree roots are well equipped to withstand drought situations and maintain morphological and physiological functions as long as possible. Further, the reviewed literature demonstrates the important role of tree roots in the functioning of forest ecosystems and highlights the need for more research in this emerging field.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d41c75b30d75ce4d1204fcc346fc6a649ad776ee

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Citations in the corpus

Mechanisms of plant response to salt and drought stress and their alteration by rhizobacteria (2016, background): “During drought stress, continued root elongation can be explained by the plant’s need to reach groundwater (Brunner et al. 2015).”
Assembly and ecological function of the root microbiome across angiosperm plant species (2018, background): “Surprisingly, the effect of drought was stronger on the endosphere than the rhizosphere microbiome, suggesting large indirect effects of drought through changes in host plant physiology or immune status (26, 27, 36).”
Exogenous melatonin alleviates damage from drought stress in Brassica napus L. (rapeseed) seedlings (2018, background): “When plants are subjected to drought stress, the growth process is blocked, reducing seedling stem and root lengths and reducing shoot dry, root dry, and total dry weights (Zhang et al. 2014; Brunner et al. 2015).”
WOOD ANATOMY AND TRAIT-BASED ECOLOGY (2016, background): “Indeed, xylem conduits narrow from roots to stem and further to the branches and leaf petioles (Tyree & Zimmermann 2002; Brunner et al. 2015).”
Root trait responses to drought are more heterogeneous than leaf trait responses (2020, background): “Roots are the organs responsible for taking up water and are the first responders to many kinds of stress (Brunner et al., 2015; Weemstra et al., 2016).”