Influence of combined hydric and thermal stresses on Rosmarinus officinalis and Cistus albidus

Abstract

Wildfires are a growing threat, especially in Mediterranean climate areas during periods of drought. Wildfire research community continues to investigate propagation mechanisms on a large scale considering the thermal and fluid mechanics effects, or the main fire emissions (CO, CO2, H2O, H2, CH4). However, research on the effect of abiotic stresses on the plant emission during wildfires remains lacking, despite the fact that Mediterranean are considered important BVOC emitting and storing species. This article addresses the effect of combined hydric and thermal stresses on the volatile’s emission behaviours of two important Mediterranean shrub species; Rosmarinus officinalis and Cistus albidus that are largely consumed in wildfires. Different levels of hydric stress were applied on plants of the two species in a greenhouse of the EBI laboratories of the University of Poitiers. Thermal stress was executed by placing the water stressed plants inside a hermetic enclosure equipped with a radiant panel of maximal radiant heat flux of 84kW.m-2 and a fire-resistant glazed window for visualisation. The gaseous emissions of the plants under thermal stresses were collected and analysed by two complementary devices: an instantaneous gas analyser for CO, CO2, H2 and CH4, and adsorbent tubes by using the techniques of adsorption and desorption (by pyrolysis) for emission collection and analyses, respectively. Simultaneous Py/GC-MS experiments were realised at IC2MP on a foliar scale of the water stressed plants in order to gain more control and precision in emission analyses. The heating tests showed a good reproducibility for pyrolyses of leaf samples and interesting variations between the monoterpene emissions of stressed and unstressed plants. At plant scale, number of tests for each plant species at a given hydric stress level were insufficient to give trends and strong results because of some imposed technical problems and the constraints of public health crisis. However, these tests allowed us to adapt experimental protocols and devices for further testing such as: plant location and fixation, heat flux ramp, sampling location, use of adsorbent tubes, hydric stress duration and normalisation of measured concentrations according to the plant size.