最近，科学家利用Plantarray功能生理表型系统，在期刊Front. Plant Sci.,上发表了题为“Responses of two Acacia species to drought suggest different water-use strategies, reflecting their topographic distribution”的文章，这是本年度发表的数篇文章之一。

两种Acacia对干旱的反应表明了不同的用水策略，反映了它们的地形分布

引言：土壤水分有效性是树木生长的关键因素。在干旱的沙漠中，树木的生长受到非常干燥的土壤和大气条件的限制。Acacia树种分布在全球最干旱的沙漠区域，因此它们非常适合高温和长期干旱。理解为什么一些植物在某些环境中比其他植物表现得更好是植物科学中的一个关键问题。

方法：在这里，我们进行了一个温室实验，连续同时跟踪两种沙漠Acacia的全植物水分平衡，以揭示它们对低水分有效性的生理反应。

结果：我们发现，即使在土壤体积含水量（VWC）为5-9%的情况下，两种植物都保持了对照植物的25%，中午的冠层活动达到峰值。此外，在这一时期，受到低水有效性处理的植物继续生长。A. tortilis 比A. raddiana采取了更投机性策略。

在较低的VWC（9.8%对13.1%，t4=-4.23，p=0.006）表现气孔反应、2.2倍的高生长和更快地从干旱胁迫中恢复能力。

讨论：尽管与田间自然条件（~5kPa）相比，实验是在较温和的VPD（~3kPa）下进行的，但两个物种对干旱的不同生理反应可能解释了它们不同的地形分布。A. tortilis在地势较高、水分利用率波动较大的地方更为丰富，而A. raddiana 在主河道中含量更丰富，可利用水量更高，波动更小。这项工作展示了两种适应超干旱条件的Acacia物种独特而非凡的耗水策略。

Responses of two Acacia species to drought suggest different water-use strategies, reflecting their topographic distribution

Introduction: Soil water availability is a key factor in the growth of trees. In arid deserts, tree growth is limited by very dry soil and atmosphere conditions. Acacia tree species are distributed in the most arid deserts of the globe, therefore they are well adapted to heat and long droughts. Understanding why some plants do better than others in some environments is a key question in plant science.

Methods: Here we conducted a greenhouse experiment to continuously and simultaneously track the whole-plant water-balance of two desert Acacia species, in order to unravel their physiological responses to low water availability.

Results: We found that even under volumetric water content (VWC) of 5-9% in the soil, both species maintained 25% of the control plants, with a peak of canopy activity at noon. Moreover, plants exposed to the low water availability treatment continued growing in this period. A. tortilis applied a more opportunistic strategy than A. raddiana, and showed stomatal responses at a lower VWC (9.8% vs. 13.1%, t4= -4.23, p = 0.006), 2.2-fold higher growth, and faster recovery from drought stress.

Discussion: Although the experiment was done in milder VPD (~3 kPa) compared to the natural conditions in the field (~5 kPa), the different physiological responses to drought between the two species might explain their different topographic distributions. A. tortilis is more abundant in elevated locations with larger fluctuations in water availability while A. raddiana is more abundant in the main channels with higher and less fluctuating water availability. This work shows a unique and non-trivial water-spending strategy in two Acacia species adapted to hyper-arid conditions.

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