Abstract Detail
Plant Resilience to Climate Challenges Way, Danielle [1]. Will climate change exacerbate or mitigate plant drought stress? Increases in temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentrations directly affect plant physiology, and our predictions for how ecosystems will change under the altered precipitation regimes expected under climate change depend on how plants respond to CO2 and warming. Growth at high CO2 has long been predicted to increase drought tolerance through a reduction in stomatal conductance, but trees that are exposed to elevated CO2 can become more vulnerable to water stress due to changes in allometry, while differences in plant water use efficiency (the ratio of net photosynthesis to transpiration) underlie community composition shifts in tall-grass prairie species grown at higher CO2 concentrations. Plant responses to rising temperatures also interact with water: the physiological and developmental changes induced by elevated growth temperatures can alter plant hydraulics, such that water may exert a stronger control on plant productivity in a warmer world, but may also enable plants to tolerate drought stress more effectively. We increasingly need to adopt a multifactorial approach to studying global change and integrate leaf carbon dynamics with hydraulic physiology if we are to successfully predict and mitigate the effects of climate change on our natural systems.
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1 - University of Western Ontario, Department of Biology, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada
Keywords:
drought stress
boreal forests
Photosynthesis
climate change
plant hydraulics.
Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY18
Location: Hall A/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Wednesday, July 29th, 2015
Time: 2:15 PM
Number: SY18003
Abstract ID:458
Candidate for Awards:None | 
