Water use strategies during drought
This research explores how trees manage water under stress, especially during drought and heat. In this project, I used a range of physiological traits to examine how different water use strategies play out in natural environments. What I found reinforces a growing idea in plant ecophysiology: water regulation isn’t defined by a single trait or a fixed category, but by a spectrum of trade-offs that vary across species, seasons, and landscapes. This work highlights the need to study these strategies using multiple traits and in real-world conditions. It’s part of a broader effort to understand how trees respond to climate extremes, and how those responses shape forest resilience in a changing world.
The image below is of different physiological traits interacting to shape water use behavior in trees experiencing limited soil water availability. In this study, trees with high water storage capacity often had less resistant xylem, while those with more embolism-resistant tissues tended to tolerate lower water potentials. These kinds of trait combinations suggest that water regulation strategies are not binary but emerge from a spectrum of coordinated physiological responses. This approach, looking at multiple traits in natural settings, offers a powerful framework for studying forest resilience across species, climates, and ecosystems.
Literature Cited:
- Rojas, J., *Carlsrud, K., Gremler, V., Johnson, D. Contrasting seasonal water use strategies for co-occurring species: a field case study for mature Pseudotsuga menziesii and Juniperus scopulorum in a complex native habitat. Tree Physiology (submitted, in review)
- Tucker, L., Reinhardt, K., Johnson, D., Emanuel, R., Minick, K., Bahramian, J., Love, D., and Rojas, J. Coordination of whole-tree water transport and storage is more synchronized in mesic than semi-arid species. Plant, Cell, and Environment (submitted, in review)
- Gremler, V., Rojas, J., Carlsrud, K.*, Johnson, D. Comparative Analysis of Hydroscapes and Leaf Hydraulic Parameters of Conifers in a Snowpack-Dependent Ecosystem. Plant, Cell, and Environment (submitted, in review)
Justine Rojas 