![]() Variation in vulnerability to cavitation has been studied at the species level. ![]() Vulnerability to cavitation is one of the most important characteristics defining drought-induced tree mortality. The tension to drive water movement within a plant generates a metastable state under certain thresholds and promotes embolisms, decreasing the hydraulic conductivity. To maintain the plant water status, plants exert stomatal control to regulate water loss by transpiration and counteracting soil water deficit and evaporative demand (i.e., vapor pressure deficit, VPD). Hydraulic traits are essential to understand plant responses to drought. Thus, understanding local adaptation to climate in properties associated with drought resistance may be a way of selecting and managing specific genotypes for commercial purposes, and also of assessing the potential impact of climate change on a given species. It is not well understood how different species will adapt to this new scenario, which may imply potential shifts in the species distribution or mortality induction. Many forest ecosystems are threatened by higher temperatures and more intense droughts due to climate change. Further research must consider testing on diverse environmental conditions to assess the phenotypic plasticity of these types of traits. The comparable performance of genotypes from contrasting provenance origins suggests low genetic variation for these traits. However, compared with other studies, the stomatal sensitivity was considered moderately low, especially in the range of 1 to 3 kPa of VPD. Moreover, there were no differences in stomatal sensitivity to VPD at the provenance or the clonal level. Parameters of the vulnerability curves ( K max, P 50, P 88, and S 50) showed no differences among clones or when northern and southern clones were compared. ![]() Overall, the vulnerability to cavitation of the species was moderate (mean P 50 of −2.2 MPa). Measurements of stomatal conductance (gs) responses to VPD were taken in spring, summer, and autumn, whereas vulnerability to cavitation was evaluated at the end of spring. A nursery experiment was carried out for one growing season on 2-year-old potted plants. chilensis clones originated from provenances with contrasting climates. We assessed the vulnerability to cavitation and stomatal sensitivity to vapor pressure deficit (VPD) in A. However, under the predicted climate change scenario, the ongoing domestication of the species must consider selecting the most productive genotypes and be based on traits conferring drought tolerance. Aristotelia chilensis (Molina) Stuntz is a promising species in the food industry as it provides ‘super fruits’ with remarkable antioxidant activity. ![]()
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