Stem Water Storage Dynamics of Three Boreal Tree Species Under Short-Term Drought

Thivierge-Lampron, Jeanny, Montoro Girona, Miguel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6916-3639, Pappas, Christoforos, Duchesne, Louis, Chavardès, Raphaël D., Balducci, Lorena, Lemay, Marc-André, Peters, Richard L. et Gennaretti, Fabio (2025). Stem Water Storage Dynamics of Three Boreal Tree Species Under Short-Term Drought. Forests , 16 (9). Article 1448. doi:10.3390/f16091448 Repéré dans Depositum à https://depositum.uqat.ca/id/eprint/1788

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Résumé

The predicted increase in drought frequency with climate change and its impact on boreal tree species are growing concerns. In this study, we assessed how three boreal tree species in western Quebec used stem water storage during a three-week drought. We estimated stem water deficit from radial variations using point dendrometers installed on 50 mature trees (10 trembling aspen, 20 jack pine, and 20 black spruce) located on clay (all three species) and sandy sites (only conifers). Air temperature/humidity and soil moisture measurements were used to model their effect on stem water storage. Our results reveal contrasted stem water storage use across species during drought. Before the drought, jack pine maintained higher relative stem water storage at night than both black spruce and trembling aspen (all paired p < 0.05) but became more water-depleted during the drought (all p < 0.1). Similarly, black spruce showed the same pattern as jack pine when compared to trembling aspen, both before and during the drought (p < 0.05). Acclimation of jack pine and black spruce to moderately dry conditions on sandy soils was evident, as relative tree water deficit remained low and stable across 20–60 relative soil extractable water, but it increased sharply below 20. Our research highlights that boreal trees may substantially mediate drought stress using water storage pools. Our findings emphasize the need to consider stem water storage when determining which boreal tree species will be more affected by increasingly frequent droughts.

Type de document: Article
Informations complémentaires: La version officielle de cet article a été publiée dans la revue Forests en 2025. Le texte intégral de l’article est disponible en libre accès sur le site de la revue : https://doi.org/10.3390/f16091448
Mots-clés libres: boreal forest; climate change; drought; dendrometer; tree water relations; Pinus banksiana (Lamb.); Picea mariana (Mill. BSP); Populus tremuloides (Michx.)
Divisions: Forêts
Date de dépôt: 28 avr. 2026 14:00
Dernière modification: 28 avr. 2026 14:00
URI: https://depositum.uqat.ca/id/eprint/1788

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