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Morphological, physiological and carbon balance response of Eucalyptus genotypes under water stress

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Abstract

Water stress is considered one of the main environmental factors that limit survival and productivity of Eucalyptus plantations. Identifying genotypes traits that provide evidence of tolerance to water stress may allow sustained productivity and secure better resilience of forest plantations under climate change in Mediterranean environments. Our study analyzed morphological, physiological, and carbon (C) balance responses of ten Eucalyptus genotypes under contrasting water regimes under nursery conditions. One-year-old cuttings of Eucalyptus nitens (En1 and En2), E. smithii (Es), E. badjensis (Eb), E. nitens x globulus (Eng1, Eng2, Eng3, and Eng4), E. globulus (Eg), and E. camaldulensis x globulus (Ecg) were evaluated under progressive drought from well-watered (soil water potential close to 0 MPa) to severe water stress (soil water potential close to − 2.5 MPa) conditions. Absolute growth rate (root collar diameter, height, shoot: root biomass ratio), net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE), predawn water potential (Ψpd) and C balance (flux and partitioning) were evaluated. As expected, water stress significantly reduced growth and physiological activity for all genotypes. Of all evaluated parameters iWUE and Ψpd were the key grou** physiological and growth response variables among genotypes. Genotypes En1, Eng3, and Eng4 were considered tolerant genotypes, with the smallest physiological change and larger morphological growth. Genotypes En2, Es, Eng1 and Eng2 were moderately tolerant showing intermediate responses compared to other groups. In contrast, Eg, Eb, and Ecg were considered highly sensitive, with major changes in morphology and physiological variables over time. Our results suggest that nursery stage physiological evaluation of genotypes may allow selection for sites with water resource availability risks and may allow to reduce mortality and early establishment productivity losses under drier climate change scenarios.

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Acknowledgements

Smurfit Kappa Colombia facilitated the MSc. scholarship for the first author. In addition, the Forestry Productivity Cooperative (FPC) and the Faculty of Forest Sciences of the University of Concepción (UdeC) provided staff, infrastructure, and acquired equipment for experiment development. Finally, Forestal Mininco SpA provided the Eucalyptus genotypes evaluated in this study.

Funding

This research was funded by the Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research FONDECYT Project Grant 1190835, ANID BASAL FB210015 (CENAMAD), the Forest Productivity Cooperative and Smurfit Kappa Colombia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cooperativa de Productividad Forestal, Departamento de Silvicultura, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Luz Yeidy García, Rafael Rubilar, Juan Carlos Valverde & Daniel Bozo

  2. Smurfit Kappa Cartón de Colombia, Cl. 15 # 18-109, Yumbo, Colombia

    Luz Yeidy García

  3. Centro Nacional de Excelencia Para la Industria de la Madera (CENAMAD), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Rafael Rubilar & Daniel Bozo

  4. Forestal Mininco SpA, Los Angeles, Chile

    Verónica Emhart & Alex Medina

  5. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Luisa Bascuñán

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  1. Luz Yeidy García
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  2. Rafael Rubilar
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  3. Juan Carlos Valverde
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  5. Luisa Bascuñán
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Contributions

LG participated in the study design, planning, data analysis and was the main responsible for experimental set-up, measurements, and manuscript writing. RR developed the core research project, design and planning of the experiment, guided data analyses, and revised the manuscript. JCV provided support on manuscript writing,analysis and revision of the manuscript. VE, and AM provided experimental material, funding for trial installation and genotypes information used in the experiment. LB, provided support on experimental measurements and DB participated in initial set-up and development of the experiment.

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Correspondence to Rafael Rubilar.

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García, L.Y., Rubilar, R., Valverde, J.C. et al. Morphological, physiological and carbon balance response of Eucalyptus genotypes under water stress. New Forests 55, 441–457 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-023-09985-7

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