Thermal Safety Margins and Peak Leaf Temperatures Predict Vulnerability of Diverse Plant Species to an Experimental Heatwave.
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High leaf maximum temperatures and thermal safety margins accurately predict species vulnerability to heatwaves, with T leaf_max explaining 55% of T crit variation across 50 plant species.
- Why it matters: Understanding species-specific heat vulnerability is crucial amid increasing frequency of extreme heat events, yet reliable assessment methods are limited, hindering conservation and management efforts.
- What they did: The study exposed 50 tree and shrub species to a 6-day heatwave in controlled conditions, measuring changes in leaf critical temperature, leaf maximum temperature, and thermal safety margins to evaluate heat tolerance.
- The result: Findings show T leaf_max is a stronger indicator than T crit alone for ranking heat tolerance, and combining T leaf_max with T crit into TSMs provides the most reliable prediction of species vulnerability to heat stress.