Wood Anatomy and Plant Hydraulics in a Changing Climate

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change will profoundly affect woody plants across the globe through rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, increasing temperatures, and an accelerating hydrological cycle with more wet and dry extremes. Here, we provide an overview of how changing environmental conditions influence woody plant anatomy and hydraulics, and how anatomical and hydraulic traits can inform and predict plant responses to environmental stressors, such as mortality triggered by severe drought. We highlight that hydraulic traits may be useful in predicting cross-species patterns of drought and temperature stress, but the variability and plasticity within a species, and potential for recovery after stress are poorly known and critical to understand. We conclude with promising future research directions to connect plant anatomy and hydraulics to demographic outcomes that will help underpin and guide prediction of climate change impacts on woody plants globally.