Abstract
Dehydration tolerance and embolism resistance contribute to plant drought survival, but their limits and combinations in perennial grasses remain unexplored. We investigated four grasses (Stipa species and Dactylis subspecies) from Mediterranean sites prone to intense summer drought. Plant tolerance to soil water deficit and tissue dehydration, embolism resistance (P50), and water-soluble carbohydrates (WSCs) were measured under severe drought. Dactylis were more dehydration tolerant, reaching 50% survival at a lower soil water potential (-6.07 MPa) than Stipa (-2.64 MPa), and at a lower leaf base water content (32.8%) than Stipa (50.0%). Dactylis accumulated higher WSCs in leaf bases [479 mg g-1 dry mass (DM), high fructan concentration] than Stipa (17 mg g-1 DM, high sucrose concentration). WSCs contributed 47% (Dactylis) and 29% (Stipa) to osmotic adjustment. However, Stipa had higher embolism resistance (P50= -8.7 MPa) than Dactylis (-2.9 MPa). Plants from the most arid sites had the highest dehydration tolerance, while embolism resistance was uncorrelated with aridity of the sites of origin. We found the highest embolism resistance and dehydration tolerance reported for herbaceous species. We showed that semi-arid grasses combine contrasting strategies to survive drought. Assessing these strategy combinations is crucial to predicting plant resilience under climate change.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 10
Claim · model-written summary
Dactylis reached 50% survival at lower soil water potential than Stipa.
DactylisOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Dactylis were more dehydration tolerant, reaching 50% survival at a lower soil water potential (-6.07 MPa) than Stipa (-2.64 MPa)”
Claim · model-written summary
Dactylis reached 50% survival at lower leaf base water content than Stipa.
- Outcome
- leaf base water contente0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Value
- 32.8%e0
- Qualifier
- Stipa (50.0%)e0
- Comparator
- Stipae0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“and at a lower leaf base water content (32.8%) than Stipa (50.0%)”
t0“Dactylis were more dehydration tolerant”
Claim · model-written summary
Dactylis accumulated more water-soluble carbohydrates in leaf bases than Stipa.
- Outcome
- WSCs in leaf basese0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- 479 mg g-1 dry mass (DM)e0
- Qualifier
- high fructan concentratione0
- Comparator
- Stipae0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Dactylis accumulated higher WSCs in leaf bases [479 mg g-1 dry mass (DM), high fructan concentration] than Stipa (17 mg g-1 DM, high sucrose concentration)”
Claim · model-written summary
Stipa had 17 mg g-1 DM water-soluble carbohydrates, with high sucrose concentration.
StipaOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“than Stipa (17 mg g-1 DM, high sucrose concentration)”
Claim · model-written summary
Water-soluble carbohydrates contributed 47% to osmotic adjustment in Dactylis.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“WSCs contributed 47% (Dactylis) and 29% (Stipa) to osmotic adjustment”
Claim · model-written summary
Water-soluble carbohydrates contributed 29% to osmotic adjustment in Stipa.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“WSCs contributed 47% (Dactylis) and 29% (Stipa) to osmotic adjustment”
Claim · model-written summary
Stipa had higher embolism resistance than Dactylis.
- Outcome
- embolism resistancee0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- -8.7 MPae0
- Qualifier
- Dactylis (-2.9 MPa)e0
- Comparator
- Dactylise0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Stipa had higher embolism resistance (P50= -8.7 MPa) than Dactylis (-2.9 MPa)”
Claim · model-written summary
Plants from the most arid sites had the highest dehydration tolerance.
- Taxon
- PlantsViridiplantaee0
- Outcome
- dehydration tolerancee0
- Direction
- higheste0
- Setting
- most arid sitese0
Verbatim
e0“Plants from the most arid sites had the highest dehydration tolerance”
Claim · model-written summary
Embolism resistance was uncorrelated with aridity of sites of origin.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“embolism resistance was uncorrelated with aridity of the sites of origin”
t0“grasses”
Claim · model-written summary
These grasses showed the highest embolism resistance and dehydration tolerance reported for herbaceous species.
Verbatim
e0“We found the highest embolism resistance and dehydration tolerance reported for herbaceous species”
t0“grasses”