Droughts are increasing in number and frequency in many regions worldwide, with enormous impacts on plants in natural and crop ecosystems, including semi-deserts. I will review recent advances in the impact of drought on plant cells and the leaf water transport system, and how these scale up to influencing plant productivity and mortality. In particular I will focus on the plant wilting point, a.k.a., turgor loss point, and its implications for plant drought responses across scales from leaf and ecosystem gas exchange and productivity to species’ distributions within diverse ecosystems, with a focus on semi-desert systems.

1. Prof. Lawren Sack
Plant drought tolerance from cells to ecosystems
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
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