Paper · 2026 · American Journal of Botany

Recovery of California black walnut ( Juglans californica ) trees from drought, fire, and biotic stress: Is resprouting an elixir?

Lauren M. Tucker; Edward G. Bobich; Stephen D. Davis; et al.

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claims
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verbatim quotes
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citations
3
research areas
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Open access

Abstract

PREMISE: Resilience to the interaction of multiple stress factors of drought, wildfire, and canker disease has been little studied. During the 2012 to 2016 megadrought in California, black walnut trees were observed to resprout from the base due to water stress-induced dieback. After monitoring plants for a year, wildfire burned all the plants at two of our study sites, which was followed by vegetative resprouting. Plants also expressed symptoms of canker disease. We thus had an opportunity to assess the impacts of water stress, wildfire, growth form, and canker disease on plant performance. METHODS: Water potentials and photosynthetic rates of drought-induced resprouts were monitored and compared to nearby adults that had not experienced drought-induced dieback, both inland (San Dimas, California) and at coastal exposures (Malibu, CA). We monitored the recovery of adults and drought-induced resprouts from 2017 to 2019, including fire-induced resprouts at coastal exposures following a 2018 wildfire. In addition, stem canker number and canker length were compared among irrigated and non-irrigated growth forms, including drought-induced resprouts, coppice-induced resprouts, adults, and resprouting adults. RESULTS: Drought-induced resprouts displayed higher water potentials and photosynthetic rates than adults, especially during dry periods, but had lower (more negative) values than fire-induced resprouts. Non-irrigated walnut trees displayed greater canker initiation and canker elongation rates than irrigated trees, with irrigated coppice-induced resprouts showing the least canker development. CONCLUSIONS: Resprouting can temporarily relieve water stress, but xylem water stress and canker disease agents feed off one another. Repeat stresses of drought, fire and disease compound to reduce the resilience of individuals and populations of walnut.

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Claims 9

Associationobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Drought-induced resprouts had higher water potentials than adults, particularly in dry periods.

Taxon
Juglans californicaJuglans californicat0
Material
Drought-induced resproutse0
Outcome
water potentialse0
Direction
highere0
Qualifier
especially during dry periodse0
Comparator
adultse0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Juglans californica
Juglans californica · TaxonEugene Zelenko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

e0

“Drought-induced resprouts displayed higher water potentials and photosynthetic rates than adults, especially during dry periods”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1232–1359 · show in text ↑
t0

“Juglans californica”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 38–57 · show in text ↑
Associationobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Drought-induced resprouts had higher photosynthetic rates than adults, particularly in dry periods.

Taxon
Juglans californicaJuglans californicat0
Material
Drought-induced resproutse0
Outcome
photosynthetic ratese0
Direction
highere0
Comparator
adultse0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Juglans californica
Juglans californica · TaxonEugene Zelenko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

e0

“Drought-induced resprouts displayed higher water potentials and photosynthetic rates than adults, especially during dry periods”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1232–1359 · show in text ↑
t0

“Juglans californica”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 38–57 · show in text ↑
Associationobservedoriginal resultnegativemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Drought-induced resprouts had lower water potentials than fire-induced resprouts.

Taxon
Juglans californicaJuglans californicat0
Material
Drought-induced resproutse0
Outcome
valuese0
Direction
lowere0
Comparator
fire-induced resproutse0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Juglans californica
Juglans californica · TaxonEugene Zelenko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

e0

“Drought-induced resprouts displayed higher water potentials and photosynthetic rates than adults, especially during dry periods, but had lower (more negative) values than fire-induced resprouts”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1232–1425 · show in text ↑
t0

“Juglans californica”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 38–57 · show in text ↑
Intervention effectobservedoriginal resultnegativemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Non-irrigated trees had greater canker initiation than irrigated trees.

Taxon
walnut treese0
Treatment
Non-irrigatede0
Outcome
canker initiatione0
Direction
greatere0
Comparator
irrigated treese0

Verbatim

e0

“Non-irrigated walnut trees displayed greater canker initiation and canker elongation rates than irrigated trees”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1427–1538 · show in text ↑
Intervention effectobservedoriginal resultnegativemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Non-irrigated trees had greater canker elongation rates than irrigated trees.

Taxon
walnut treese0
Treatment
Non-irrigatede0
Outcome
canker elongation ratese0
Direction
greatere0
Comparator
irrigated treese0

Verbatim

e0

“Non-irrigated walnut trees displayed greater canker initiation and canker elongation rates than irrigated trees”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1427–1538 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Irrigated coppice-induced resprouts had the least canker development.

Taxon
Juglans californicaJuglans californicat0
Material
coppice-induced resproutse0
Outcome
canker developmente0
Direction
leaste0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Juglans californica
Juglans californica · TaxonEugene Zelenko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

e0

“irrigated coppice-induced resprouts showing the least canker development”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1545–1617 · show in text ↑
t0

“Juglans californica”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 38–57 · show in text ↑
Mechanismauthor interpretationoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Resprouting can temporarily relieve water stress.

Taxon
Juglans californicaJuglans californicat0
Outcome
water stresse0
Direction
relievee0
Qualifier
Resproutinge0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Juglans californica
Juglans californica · TaxonEugene Zelenko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

e0

“Resprouting can temporarily relieve water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1632–1680 · show in text ↑
t0

“Juglans californica”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 38–57 · show in text ↑
Mechanismauthor interpretationoriginal resultmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Xylem water stress and canker disease agents reinforce one another.

Taxon
Juglans californicaJuglans californicat0
Outcome
xylem water stress and canker disease agents feed off one anothere0
Qualifier
xylem water stresse0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Juglans californica
Juglans californica · TaxonEugene Zelenko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

e0

“xylem water stress and canker disease agents feed off one another”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1686–1751 · show in text ↑
t0

“Juglans californica”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 38–57 · show in text ↑
Mechanismauthor interpretationoriginal resultnegativemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Repeated drought, fire and disease reduce walnut resilience.

Taxon
walnute0
Treatment
Repeat stresses of drought, fire and diseasee0
Outcome
resilience of individuals and populations of walnute0
Direction
reducee0

Verbatim

e0

“Repeat stresses of drought, fire and disease compound to reduce the resilience of individuals and populations of walnut”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1753–1872 · show in text ↑