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      Desiccation and Mortality Dynamics in Seedlings of Different European Beech ( Fagus sylvatica L.) Populations under Extreme Drought Conditions

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          Abstract

          European beech ( Fagus sylvatica L., hereafter beech), one of the major native tree species in Europe, is known to be drought sensitive. Thus, the identification of critical thresholds of drought impact intensity and duration are of high interest for assessing the adaptive potential of European beech to climate change in its native range. In a common garden experiment with one-year-old seedlings originating from central and marginal origins in six European countries (Denmark, Germany, France, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Spain), we applied extreme drought stress and observed desiccation and mortality processes among the different populations and related them to plant water status (predawn water potential, Ψ PD) and soil hydraulic traits. For the lethal drought assessment, we used a critical threshold of soil water availability that is reached when 50% mortality in seedling populations occurs (LD50 SWA). We found significant population differences in LD50 SWA (10.5–17.8%), and mortality dynamics that suggest a genetic difference in drought resistance between populations. The LD50 SWA values correlate significantly with the mean growing season precipitation at population origins, but not with the geographic margins of beech range. Thus, beech range marginality may be more due to climatic conditions than to geographic range. The outcome of this study suggests the genetic variation has a major influence on the varying adaptive potential of the investigated populations.

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          Conserving biodiversity under climate change: the rear edge matters.

          Modern climate change is producing poleward range shifts of numerous taxa, communities and ecosystems worldwide. The response of species to changing environments is likely to be determined largely by population responses at range margins. In contrast to the expanding edge, the low-latitude limit (rear edge) of species ranges remains understudied, and the critical importance of rear edge populations as long-term stores of species' genetic diversity and foci of speciation has been little acknowledged. We review recent findings from the fossil record, phylogeography and ecology to illustrate that rear edge populations are often disproportionately important for the survival and evolution of biota. Their ecological features, dynamics and conservation requirements differ from those of populations in other parts of the range, and some commonly recommended conservation practices might therefore be of little use or even counterproductive for rear edge populations.
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            Limitation of plant water use by rhizosphere and xylem conductance: results from a model

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              Response of forest trees to global environmental changes

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Plant Sci
                Front Plant Sci
                Front. Plant Sci.
                Frontiers in Plant Science
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-462X
                14 June 2016
                2016
                : 7
                : 751
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems Eberswalde, Germany
                [2] 2Instituto per la Protezione Sostenibile delle Piante (IPSP), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
                [3] 3Dipartimento di Bioscienze e Territorio, Università del Molise Pesche, Italy
                [4] 4EFI Project Centre on Mountain Forests (MOUNTFOR), Edmund Mach Foundation San Michele all'Adige, Italy
                [5] 5BIOGECO, INRA, Université de Bordeaux Cestas, France
                [6] 6Institute of Forest Ecology, Slovak Academy of Science Zvolen, Slovakia
                [7] 7Marin Dracea National Forest Research-Development Institute Bucharest, Romania
                [8] 8PIAF, INRA, Université Clermont Auvergne Clermont-Ferrand, France
                [9] 9Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen Frederiksberg C, Denmark
                [10] 10Grupo de Clima, Agua, Cambio Global y Sistemas Naturales, Departamento de Geografía y Ordenación del Territorio, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Zaragoza Zaragoza, Spain
                [11] 11Faculty of Forestry, University of Banja Luka Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
                [12] 12Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL Birmensdorf, Switzerland
                Author notes

                Edited by: Boris Rewald, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

                Reviewed by: Christiane Werner, University of Freiburg, Germany; Frédéric Holzwarth, Universität Leipzig, Germany

                *Correspondence: Andreas Bolte andreas.bolte@ 123456thuenen.de

                This article was submitted to Functional Plant Ecology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science

                Article
                10.3389/fpls.2016.00751
                4906631
                27379105
                770d5e94-c907-4086-8615-e01a57e1751a
                Copyright © 2016 Bolte, Czajkowski, Cocozza, Tognetti, de Miguel, Pšidová, Ditmarová, Dinca, Delzon, Cochard, Ræbild, de Luis, Cvjetkovic, Heiri and Müller.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 28 February 2016
                : 17 May 2016
                Page count
                Figures: 4, Tables: 3, Equations: 7, References: 89, Pages: 12, Words: 9713
                Funding
                Funded by: European Cooperation in Science and Technology 10.13039/501100000921
                Award ID: FP1106
                Categories
                Plant Science
                Original Research

                Plant science & Botany
                fagus sylvatica,drought,desiccation,mortality,ld50swa,soil water availability,genetic variation,pre-dawn water potential

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