Constraints on the xylem safety-efficiency trade-off
- 1Chair of Forest Botany, Institute of Forest Botany and Zoology, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Abstract
The xylem safety-efficiency trade-off is a central paradigm in plant hydraulics, yet empirical support remains inconsistent. In this study, we highlight how this inconsistency may arise from variation in environmental and evolutionary constraints and from differences in observational scale. We analysed 38 diffuse-porous angiosperm and 24 conifer species grown in a common garden experiment to quantify the relationship between embolism resistance (P50) and specific hydraulic conductivity (Ks) across and within species, and its differences between three species groups differing in evolutionary ancestry and eco-hydrological strategy. When pooling over all species, we found evidence for a safety-efficiency trade-off both across and within species. However, this pattern was driven almost exclusively by the mesic broadleaved species. In contrast, the across-species pattern was suppressed in coniferous species due to the evolutionary constraints on efficiency posed by their tracheid-based wood anatomy, while there was no evidence for a trade-off on either level in hydrophilic broadleaved species, which evolved under conditions that pose reduced selective pressure on embolism resistance. Our results demonstrate that the safety-efficiency trade-off is not universal, but emerges only in specific ecological and evolutionary contexts, highlighting the importance of multi-scale analyses and constraint-based frameworks for interpreting plant hydraulic strategies.
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BibTeX
@misc{tezeh2026constraints,
title = {{Constraints on the xylem safety-efficiency trade-off}},
author = {F. R. Tezeh and R. M. Link and P. Petrik and R. Richter and A. Weigelt and C. Wirth and B. Schuldt},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.25.754362},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.25.754362v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Constraints on the xylem safety-efficiency trade-off
AU - F. R. Tezeh
AU - R. M. Link
AU - P. Petrik
AU - R. Richter
AU - A. Weigelt
AU - C. Wirth
AU - B. Schuldt
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/25
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.25.754362
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.25.754362v1
AB - The xylem safety-efficiency trade-off is a central paradigm in plant hydraulics, yet empirical support remains inconsistent. In this study, we highlight how this inconsistency may arise from variation in environmental and evolutionary constraints and from differences in observational scale. We analysed 38 diffuse-porous angiosperm and 24 conifer species grown in a common garden experiment to quantify the relationship between embolism resistance (P50) and specific hydraulic conductivity (Ks) across and within species, and its differences between three species groups differing in evolutionary ancestry and eco-hydrological strategy. When pooling over all species, we found evidence for a safety-efficiency trade-off both across and within species. However, this pattern was driven almost exclusively by the mesic broadleaved species. In contrast, the across-species pattern was suppressed in coniferous species due to the evolutionary constraints on efficiency posed by their tracheid-based wood anatomy, while there was no evidence for a trade-off on either level in hydrophilic broadleaved species, which evolved under conditions that pose reduced selective pressure on embolism resistance. Our results demonstrate that the safety-efficiency trade-off is not universal, but emerges only in specific ecological and evolutionary contexts, highlighting the importance of multi-scale analyses and constraint-based frameworks for interpreting plant hydraulic strategies.
ER -