poster
Water Use Efficiency by Mangroves in The Guánica Dry Forest Reserve
Registro en:
Autor
Mulero-Oliveras, E.
Govender, Y.
Diaz, L.
Cuevas, E.
Institución
Resumen
It is important to understand and study the different adaptations and
responses of plants changes in climate, especially, those living in arid
environments where high temperatures, low precipitation, soil depth, soilmoisture
availability, among others determines forest productivity, growth
characteristics, water loss and physiognomy.
Under conditions when plants are not stressed plants preferentially fix ¹²C,
and the fixed CO₂ becomes ¹³C depleted. Under conditions where the
plant is stressed it increases ¹³C fixation as a result of stomatal closure
and enzymatic fractionation. Therefore we hypothesized that ð¹³C of
leaf tissue will reflect month to month changes in water availability as a
function of the precipitation .
In this research we studied mangroves in the Guánica Dry Forest Reserve
to understand the seasonal changes of water use efficiency by plants in
relation to water availability. The natural abundance of isotopic carbon
(ð¹³C) of leaf tissue was used as a measure of long term water use
efficiency.