| dc.description.abstract | Aims
Addressing plant responses to water stress is critical to understand
the structure of plant communities in water-limited environments
and to forecast their resilience to future changes in climate. In a
semiarid agroforestry system in the Sahelian savannah of Leona
(Senegal), we selected nine common tree species and explored their
stress-resistance mechanisms. These species represent a variety of
life forms and are of high regional socio-economic importance. We
hypothesized that different species would show different suites of
traits to cope with water stress and expected to identify functional
groups differing in strategies to withstand water shortage.
Methods
Along a dry and a wet season, we monitored four traits reflecting
above- and below-ground strategies of resource acquisition such
as predawn leaf water potential (ψpd), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf
thickness and leaf area index (LAI). We also measured two mor phological traits: trunk diameter and tree height. LAI and ψpd were
measured six times during the dry and rainy seasons, and the other
traits were measured once.
Important Findings
We identified two functional classes subdivided into two func tional groups of each class. The first class included deciduous
and semi-deciduous species that generally had large SLA, low
leaf thickness and small-to-intermediate inter-seasonal varia tions in ψpd. The second class included evergreen species of two
functional groups that differ in SLA, leaf thickness and the mag nitude of inter-seasonal variations of ψpd throughout the year.
The four functional groups identified in this study represent plant
strategies differing in their response to changing environmental
conditions.
Keywords: Acacia tortilis, Adansonia digitata, Balanites aegyptiaca,
Celtis integrifolia, Combretum glutinosum, Faidherbia albida,
functional traits, Neocarya macrophyla, Sclerocarya birrea,
Tamarindus indica, water stres | en_US |
