Two consecutive dry years in South Australia have put extreme stress on urban trees and shrubs, with Flinders University experts examining degrees of dieback in Adelaide trees affected by the dry conditions.
Two consecutive dry years in South Australia have put extreme stress on urban trees and shrubs, with Flinders University experts examining degrees of dieback in Adelaide trees affected by the dry conditions.
To better understand how trees may respond to drought differently, the researchers used a novel approach to assess a plant’s ‘efficiency and safety’ (resilience) to take up water from the soil – in a sense measuring their ‘personality’.
“Some trees take up water from soil more efficiently than others when soil water is abundant, but become less safe in drought – just like humans with different personalities respond to different stressors,” says Professor of Hydrology Huade (Walter) Guan, explaining a new article in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.
The article explains how different trees of the same species may develop some flexibility to adjust the trade-off between hydraulic efficiency and safety over dry and wet seasons.
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Image: Professor Guan and eco-hydrology researchers Dr Wenjing Yang, right, and Xanthia Gleeson check a tree struggling to survive the drought in South Australia. (Credit: Flinders University)
