Publications by authors named "Benjamin D Hesse"

Measuring xylem sap flow is crucial for calculating water use in trees and forests, but remote measurements are challenging, especially regarding power supply. The transient thermal dissipation (TTD) system addresses these challenges by being power-efficient and robust. This study assesses the TreeTalker© system (version TT+), a newly developed battery-powered, Internet of Things (IoT)-based measurement system with new probes in terms of structure and material compared with previous versions.

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Forests globally are experiencing severe droughts, leading to significant reductions in growth, crown dieback and even tree mortality. The ability of forest ecosystems to acclimate to prolonged and repeated droughts is critical for their survival with ongoing climate change. In a five-year throughfall exclusion experiment, we investigated the long-term physiological and morphological acclimation of mature Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.

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Article Synopsis
  • Biophysicochemical properties of rhizosheath are crucial for how plants adapt to drought, but our understanding of their mechanisms and how they interact with soil during drought is lacking.
  • A study involving 38 varieties of Zea mays showed that drought conditions negatively impacted soil structure and affected the movement of plant carbon within the soil.
  • The responses of different plant varieties to drought varied, influencing how they maintained soil structure and interacted with microbes, suggesting that these changes at the root-soil interface are key for ecosystem resilience in a changing climate.
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As climate change progresses, the frequency and duration of drought stress events are increasing. While the mechanisms of drought acclimation of trees has received considerable attention in recent years, the recovery processes remain critically understudied. We used a unique throughfall exclusion experiment in a mature temperate mixed forest consisting of the more isohydric Norway spruce and more anisohydric European beech, to study the recovery and resilience after drought release.

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After drought events, tree recovery depends on sufficient carbon (C) allocation to the sink organs. The present study aimed to elucidate dynamics of tree-level C sink activity and allocation of recent photoassimilates (C ) and stored C in c. 70-year-old Norway spruce (Picea abies) trees during a 4-week period after drought release.

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Forest trees are experiencing increasing frequency and intensity of drought events with climate change. We investigated xylem and phloem traits from mature Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies trees after 5 years of complete exclusion of throughfall precipitation during the growing season. Xylem and phloem anatomy, leaf and branch biomass were analysed along top branches of ~1.

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Under ongoing global climate change, drought periods are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity in the future. Under these circumstances, it is crucial for tree's survival to recover their restricted functionalities quickly after drought release. To elucidate the recovery of carbon (C) transport rates in c.

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Hydraulic redistribution (HR) can buffer drought events of tree individuals, however, its relevance for neighbouring trees remains unclear. Here, we quantified HR to neighbouring trees in single- and mixed-species combinations. We hypothesized that uptake of HR water positively correlates with root length, number of root tips and root xylem hydraulic conductivity and that neighbours in single-species combinations receive more HR water than in phylogenetic distant mixed-species combinations.

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Severe drought events threaten tree water transport system, productivity and survival. Woody angiosperms generally die when embolism-induced loss of hydraulic conductance (PLC) surpasses 80-90% under intense water shortage. However, the recovery capability and possible long-term carry-over effects of repeated drought events could dictate the fate of species' population under climate change scenarios.

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Phloem sustains maintenance and growth processes through transport of sugars from source to sink organs. Under low water availability, tree functioning is impaired, i.e.

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