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Change in water loss regulation after canopy clearcut of a dominant shrub in Sahelian agrosystems, Guiera senegalensis J. F. Gmel

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of the canopy age of Guiera senegalensis J.F. Gmel on water regulation processes and adaptative strategy to drought over a period of 2 years. The species is widespread in the agricultural Sahel. Before sowing, farmers cut back the shrubs to limit competition with crops. The stumps resprout after the millet harvest. Leaf water potential and stomatal conductance were measured in two fallows and in the two adjacent cultivated fields. Leaf transpiration rate and soil-to-leaf hydraulic conductance were deduced. The decrease in both stomatal and plant hydraulic conductance caused by seasonal drought was greater in mature shrubs than in current year resprouts. The decrease in predawn and midday leaf water potentials in response to seasonal drought was isohydrodynamic, and it was greater in mature shrubs, suggesting that current year resprouts are under less stress. In resprouts, the leaf transpiration rate stopped increasing beyond a hydraulic conductance threshold of 0.05 mol. m−2 s−1 MPa−1. Vulnerability to cavitation was determined on segments of stems in the laboratory. The leaf water potential value at which stomatal closure occurred was −2.99 ± 0.68 MPa, which corresponded to a 30 % loss in xylem conductivity. Thanks to its positive safety margin of 0.6 MPa, G. senegalensis can survive above this value. The observed strategy places G. senegalensis among the non-extreme xeric plants, leading us to suppose that this species will be vulnerable to the expected increase in regional drought.

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Acknowledgments

Most of the funding for this study was provided by the FSP (Fonds de Solidarité Prioritaires) Recherches Interdisciplinaires et Participatives sur les Interactions entre les Ecosystèmes, le Climat et les Sociétés en Afrique de l’ouest (RIPIECSA) program entiltled: « Vulnérabilité et Adaptations des Socio-écosystèmes en Afrique » (VASA) from the Agence inter-établissements de recherche pour le développement (AIRD) and the IRD’s Département Soutien et formation des communautés scientifiques du Sud (DSF). Additional funding was provided by the AMMA program and the IRD’s incentive project on “Climate Change, Water Resources and Food Crops in the Sahel” (CRECS project). We gratefully acknowledge the two reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments on previous versions of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université Abdou Moumouni, BP 10662, Niamey, Niger

    Hassane Bil-Assanou Issoufou, Mahamane Saâdou & Ali Mahamane

  2. IRD, UMR HydroSciences Montpellier, Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier Cedex 5, 34095, Montpellier, France

    Hassane Bil-Assanou Issoufou, Bernard Cappelaere, Jérôme Demarty, Monique Oï & Josiane Seghieri

  3. INRA, UMR BIOGECO, Université de Bordeaux, 33450, Talence, France

    Sylvain Delzon

  4. CNRS, LTHE, Grenoble Cedex 9, BP 53, 38041, Grenoble, France

    Jean-Paul Laurent

  5. CNRS, CEFE-UMR DREAM, Université de Montpellier 2, Montpellier Cedex 5, 34293, Montpellier, France

    Serge Rambal

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  1. Hassane Bil-Assanou Issoufou
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  2. Sylvain Delzon
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Correspondence to Hassane Bil-Assanou Issoufou.

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Issoufou, H.BA., Delzon, S., Laurent, JP. et al. Change in water loss regulation after canopy clearcut of a dominant shrub in Sahelian agrosystems, Guiera senegalensis J. F. Gmel. Trees 27, 1011–1022 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-013-0852-6

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