A global analysis of plant recovery performance from water stress

Plant post-drought recovery performance is essential to predict shifts in ecosystem dynamics and production during frequent climate change-driven drought events. Yet, it is not clear how post-drought recovery is related to evolutionary and geographic variations in plants. In this study, we generated a global data set of post-drought recovery performance in 140 plant species from published studies. We quantified the plant post-drought recovery performance by calculating a recovery index for multiple plant physiological and hydraulic parameters, including leaf water potential, net photosynthetic rate, leaf hydraulic conductance, and shoot biomass. The magnitude of recovery among four plant functional types (deciduous angiosperms, evergreen angiosperms, gymnosperms, and crops), two plant growth forms (shrubs and trees), two water management strategies (isohydric and anisohydric), four xylem porosity types (diffuse, ring, semi-ring, and tracheid), and four major biomes (dry sclerophyll ...