Interspecific variation in drought resistance among urban forest maple trees
Abstract
Maple tree species (Acer spp.) hold significant cultural, ecological, and economic importance in northeastern North America. While climatic conditions become increasingly warm and dry, their responses to drought remain poorly understood. This issue is even more critical in urban environments, where water stress can be further exacerbated through heat island effect, soil compaction and de-icing salts. This study aimed to assess drought resistance of seven maple tree species naturally occurring in urban forests in southern Québec. We monitored in situ midday leaf water potential during two consecutive summers and measured a wide range of traits related to tree drought responses, growth and leaf economics on 28 mature maple trees. We found that drought responses differed significantly among maple tree species, with sugar maple and Norway maple being the most drought resistant and boxelder maple and mountain maple being the most drought vulnerable. Sugar maple and Norway maple further exhibited denser wood, higher radial growth and originate from a relatively drier habitat. However, maple tree drought resistance strategies were unrelated to both water-loss regulation and photosynthetic performance, which supports the existence of partially independent functional dimensions indicating no apparent trade-off between drought resistance and carbon acquisition among the studied species. These findings provide critical insights for selecting resilient tree species and informing sustainable urban forest management in the context of climate change.
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BibTeX
@misc{malleret2026interspecific,
title = {{Interspecific variation in drought resistance among urban forest maple trees}},
author = {Elyse Malleret and Vincent Maire and Marie Bellanger and Elise Bouchard and Gabrielle Chartrand and Hervé Cochard and Sylvain Delzon and Maximilian Larter and Jennifer Paillassa and Annabel Porté and Camille Roy and Laurent J Lamarque},
howpublished = {HAL},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05768079v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Interspecific variation in drought resistance among urban forest maple trees
AU - Elyse Malleret
AU - Vincent Maire
AU - Marie Bellanger
AU - Elise Bouchard
AU - Gabrielle Chartrand
AU - Hervé Cochard
AU - Sylvain Delzon
AU - Maximilian Larter
AU - Jennifer Paillassa
AU - Annabel Porté
AU - Camille Roy
AU - Laurent J Lamarque
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - HAL
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05768079v1
AB - Maple tree species (Acer spp.) hold significant cultural, ecological, and economic importance in northeastern North America. While climatic conditions become increasingly warm and dry, their responses to drought remain poorly understood. This issue is even more critical in urban environments, where water stress can be further exacerbated through heat island effect, soil compaction and de-icing salts. This study aimed to assess drought resistance of seven maple tree species naturally occurring in urban forests in southern Québec. We monitored in situ midday leaf water potential during two consecutive summers and measured a wide range of traits related to tree drought responses, growth and leaf economics on 28 mature maple trees. We found that drought responses differed significantly among maple tree species, with sugar maple and Norway maple being the most drought resistant and boxelder maple and mountain maple being the most drought vulnerable. Sugar maple and Norway maple further exhibited denser wood, higher radial growth and originate from a relatively drier habitat. However, maple tree drought resistance strategies were unrelated to both water-loss regulation and photosynthetic performance, which supports the existence of partially independent functional dimensions indicating no apparent trade-off between drought resistance and carbon acquisition among the studied species. These findings provide critical insights for selecting resilient tree species and informing sustainable urban forest management in the context of climate change.
ER -