Plant functional groups within a tropical forest exhibit different wood functional anatomy

Understanding the anatomical basis of plant water transport in forest ecosystems is crucial for contextualizing community-level adaptations to drought, especially in life-form-rich tropical forests. To provide this context, we explored wood functional anatomy traits related to plant hydraulic architecture across different plant functional groups in a lowland tropical rain forest.

We measured wood traits in 90 species from six functional groups (mature-phase, understorey and pioneer trees; understorey and pioneer shrubs; vines) and related these traits to intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUEi) as a measure of physiological performance. We also examined vessel size distribution patterns across groups to determine trade-offs in theoretical hydraulic safety vs. efficiency.

Some plant functional groups exhibited significant differences in vessel parameters and WUEi. Vessel diameters in vines and pioneer trees were two- to threefold greater on average than in understorey trees and shrubs...