On the relationship between root economics and plant hydraulic traits
Abstract
Drought stress constrains the productivity of terrestrial ecosystems and the distribution of plant species. To withstand drought stress, plants have evolved diverse water-use strategies. Despite the critical function of roots in whole-plant water regulation, drought strategies have been primarily studied from an aboveground perspective, and so our knowledge of how fine-root traits are related to aboveground hydraulic traits remains limited. Here, we compiled a dataset of primarily woody species comprising five aboveground plant hydraulic traits associated with water-use strategies and four fine-root traits from the root economics space (RES). We investigated how the global diversity in ecological strategies of the RES traits relates to aboveground hydraulic traits contributing to drought resistance. We found a slight trend towards acquisitive species with higher root nitrogen content and lower root tissue density having lower drought resistance in aboveground tissues. Species with thicker roots displayed a tendency towards slightly higher drought resistance than thin-rooted species. The weakness of these relationships suggests that aboveground drought adaptations are largely independent of classical axes of fine root ecological strategies, pointing to either a decoupling between aboveground and belowground responses or a stronger coordinating role for other root traits such as maximum rooting depth or root cortex fraction in hydraulic adaptation.
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BibTeX
@article{sanaei2026relationship,
title = {{On the relationship between root economics and plant hydraulic traits}},
author = {Anvar Sanaei and Srijna Saxena and Kevin E Mueller and M Luke Mccormack and Bernhard Schuldt and Daniel C Laughlin and Bruno H P Rosado and Grégoire T Freschet and Shalom D Addo‐danso and Kathryn E Barry and Joana Bergmann and Nico Eisenhauer and Florentin C Jaeger and Hendrik Poorter and Harry Olde Venterink and Jorad de Vries and Monique Weemstra and Liesje Mommer and Alexandra Weigelt},
journal = {New Phytologist},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1111/nph.71442},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05744367v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - On the relationship between root economics and plant hydraulic traits
AU - Anvar Sanaei
AU - Srijna Saxena
AU - Kevin E Mueller
AU - M Luke Mccormack
AU - Bernhard Schuldt
AU - Daniel C Laughlin
AU - Bruno H P Rosado
AU - Grégoire T Freschet
AU - Shalom D Addo‐danso
AU - Kathryn E Barry
AU - Joana Bergmann
AU - Nico Eisenhauer
AU - Florentin C Jaeger
AU - Hendrik Poorter
AU - Harry Olde Venterink
AU - Jorad de Vries
AU - Monique Weemstra
AU - Liesje Mommer
AU - Alexandra Weigelt
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
JO - New Phytologist
DO - 10.1111/nph.71442
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05744367v1
AB - Drought stress constrains the productivity of terrestrial ecosystems and the distribution of plant species. To withstand drought stress, plants have evolved diverse water-use strategies. Despite the critical function of roots in whole-plant water regulation, drought strategies have been primarily studied from an aboveground perspective, and so our knowledge of how fine-root traits are related to aboveground hydraulic traits remains limited. Here, we compiled a dataset of primarily woody species comprising five aboveground plant hydraulic traits associated with water-use strategies and four fine-root traits from the root economics space (RES). We investigated how the global diversity in ecological strategies of the RES traits relates to aboveground hydraulic traits contributing to drought resistance. We found a slight trend towards acquisitive species with higher root nitrogen content and lower root tissue density having lower drought resistance in aboveground tissues. Species with thicker roots displayed a tendency towards slightly higher drought resistance than thin-rooted species. The weakness of these relationships suggests that aboveground drought adaptations are largely independent of classical axes of fine root ecological strategies, pointing to either a decoupling between aboveground and belowground responses or a stronger coordinating role for other root traits such as maximum rooting depth or root cortex fraction in hydraulic adaptation.
SN - 0028-646X
SN - 1469-8137
ER -