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A new study has focused its research on coastal woody plant mortality, what causes it and how it can be prevented. Many woody plants have shown survival problems, linked to several factors. The study, entitled Processes and mechanisms of coastal woody-plant mortality, was published in the Global change biology.
The researchers explain: "Observations of woody plant mortality in coastal ecosystems are globally widespread, but the overarching processes and underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. This knowledge deficiency, combined with rapidly changing water levels, storm surges, atmospheric CO2 , and vapor pressure deficit, creates large predictive uncertainty regarding how coastal ecosystems will respond to global change.
Here, we synthesize the literature on the mechanisms that underlie coastal woody-plant mortality, with the goal of producing a testable hypothesis framework."
Coastal woody-plant mortality
Researchers then added: "The key emerging mechanisms underlying mortality include hypoxic, osmotic, and ionic-driven reductions in whole-plant hydraulic conductance and photosynthesis that ultimately drive the coupled processes of hydraulic failure and carbon starvation.
The relative importance of these processes in driving mortality, their order of progression, and their degree of coupling depends on the characteristics of the anomalous water exposure, on topographic effects, and on taxa-specific variation in traits and trait acclimation.
Greater inundation exposure could accelerate mortality globally; however, the interaction of changing inundation exposure with elevated CO2 , drought, and rising vapor pressure deficit could influence mortality likelihood.
Models of coastal forests that incorporate the frequency and duration of inundation, the role of climatic drivers, and the processes of hydraulic failure and carbon starvation can yield improved estimates of inundation-induced woody-plant mortality.
Our objective is to review the state-of-the-knowledge regarding coastal woody-plant mortality in both fresh and saline environments, with the goal of enabling better informed prediction. To achieve this objective, we reviewed the literature regarding ghost forest formation from ecological, biophysical, and physiological domains to generate hypotheses regarding the underlying mechanisms of mortality for both halophytic and glycophytic woody plants.
We assemble evidence from theory, observations, experiments, and models to generate a hypothesis framework. This framework is consistent with prior theories on the physiological impacts of hypoxia and salinity, while recognizing the underlying mechanisms as interdependent. "