Project description
Monitoring tree water storage dynamics
During droughts, trees can suffer from xylem cavitation, which can lead to their death. They can partly counteract this by using stored water through a process called hydraulic capacitance, but there is little data on how this works under natural conditions. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the CapaciTree project aims to quantify and characterise hydraulic capacitance, focusing on how trees refill and store water and how this supports transpiration. The project will combine labelling experiments using isotopically enriched water with a new technique for extracting water from different woody tissues. It will study how trees manage stored water, develop a method to assess hydraulic capacitance’s role in transpiration, and estimate its contribution to mature trees within a native Mediterranean forest experiencing severe drought.
Objective
Climate change threatens the future of forest functioning, compromises their productivity, increases the risk of fire or insect outbreaks, and ultimately causes tree mortality. Under drought, trees can experience catastrophic hydraulic failure due to xylem cavitation (i.e. the breakage of the water column), which is the main cause of tree mortality worldwide. Trees can partially avoid cavitation by mobilising water stored in their tissues into the xylem conduits to meet the atmospheric evaporative demand, a process known as hydraulic capacitance. Despite the relevance of capacitance for predicting transpiration and mortality risk under climate change, we still lack empirical evidence for the dynamics of storage-use and refilling of plant-water pools under drought, particularly for trees growing under natural conditions. Here, I propose to combine labelling experiments with isotopically enriched water with a new technique to selectively extract water from different woody tissues, to quantify and characterize hydraulic capacitance, specifically the refilling and storage-use dynamics, and its contribution to transpiration. I will: 1) characterize the dynamics of tree storage water in relation to tree size; 2) develop a novel methodology to quantify the contribution of capacitance to transpiration; 3) estimate the contribution of tree capacitance to transpiration in mature trees in a native Mediterranean forest subjected to severe drought; and 4) compare the proposed methodology with conventional techniques to assess capacitance in three coexisting Mediterranean tree species in response to drought. My expertise in plant ecophysiology will be key to undertake this project, which will also leverage my skillset for the study of forest resilience to drought. This project will serve to build more realistic models of forest responses to drought and to inform forest management policies to adapt forest ecosystems to climate change.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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08193 BELLATERRA
Spain
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