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Response of whole plant water use to limiting light and water conditions are independent of each other in seedlings of seasonally dry tropical forests

View ORCID ProfileRon Sunny, Anirban Guha, Asmi Jezeera, Kavya Mohan N, Neha Mohan Babu, Deepak Barua
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.16.299297
Ron Sunny
1Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
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Anirban Guha
1Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
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Asmi Jezeera
1Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
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Kavya Mohan N
1Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
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Neha Mohan Babu
1Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
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Deepak Barua
1Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
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  • For correspondence: dbarua@iiserpune.ac.in
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ABSTRACT

How co-occurring species vary in the utilization of a shared and limited supply of water, especially in the context of other limiting resources like light, is essential for understanding processes that facilitate species coexistence and community assembly. For seedlings in a seasonally dry tropical forest that experience large heterogeny in light and water conditions, how water use, leaf physiology, and subsequently plant growth, is affected by limited water and light availability is still not well understood. In a controlled common garden experiment with four co-existing and commonly occurring dry tropical forest species, we examined how whole plant water uptake, responds to limiting water and light conditions and whether these responses are reflected in leaf physiology, and translated to growth. Water use varied dramatically in seedlings of the four species with a five-fold difference in well-watered plants grown in full sunlight. Species varied in their response to shade, but did not differ in responses to the low water treatment, possibly resulting from the strong selective force imposed by the very low water availability and the long dry period characteristic of these seasonally dry forests. Interestingly, species responses in water use, physiology, and growth in limiting water conditions were independent of light. Thus, species response to both these limiting conditions may evolve independently of each other. Responses in water use were largely congruent with responses in leaf physiology and growth. However, while magnitude of changes in leaf physiology were largely driven by light conditions, changes in whole plant water use and growth were influenced to a greater degree by the water treatment. This highlights the need to measure whole plant water use to better understand plant growth responses in these seasonally dry tropical forests.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted September 17, 2020.
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Response of whole plant water use to limiting light and water conditions are independent of each other in seedlings of seasonally dry tropical forests
Ron Sunny, Anirban Guha, Asmi Jezeera, Kavya Mohan N, Neha Mohan Babu, Deepak Barua
bioRxiv 2020.09.16.299297; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.16.299297
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Response of whole plant water use to limiting light and water conditions are independent of each other in seedlings of seasonally dry tropical forests
Ron Sunny, Anirban Guha, Asmi Jezeera, Kavya Mohan N, Neha Mohan Babu, Deepak Barua
bioRxiv 2020.09.16.299297; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.16.299297

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