New paper published in Nature Plants this week
Our latest paper on tree water relations appeared in Nature Plants this week. The paper reports the analysis of a large set of leaf gas exchange and water relations data that we have collected for nine temperate tree species at the Swiss Canopy Crane II research site over the last years. The analysis of these data shows that trees close their stomata in response to a universal pre-dawn leaf water potential threshold at 1.2 MPa. As such, moisture availability in the soil and the ability of trees to rehydrate at night but not the risk of daytime hydraulic failure is what ultimately controls gas exchange in a drying environment. In turn this means that stomatal control is optimised to allow the reestablishment of turgor and growth at night rather than maximising gas-exchange during the day.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-025-01957-3