Data from: 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 forest, boreal forest, temperate forest, and tropical/subtropical forest) were compared. We found the inability to completely recover immediately after severe water stress is ubiquitous across all plant functional types and growth forms, while the rate and magnitude of post-drought recovery varied greatly across different plant taxonomic categories and geographic ranges. In general, plant hydraulic architecture, leaf anatomy and physiology affect plants’ propensity towards recovery, and reflect evolutionary consequences of plant adaptation to their habitat. Due to the essential role of plant functional traits in regulating carbon storage in each biome, a better understanding plant post-drought recovery performance could improve our predictions on ecosystem productivity in a rapidly changing climate.植物干旱后恢复能力（post-drought recovery performance）对于预测气候变化驱动的频发干旱事件期间的生态系统动态与生产格局变化至关重要。然而，目前尚不清楚植物干旱后恢复能力与其演化和地理分布变异之间的关联机制。本研究从已发表文献中整合得到一套涵盖140种植物的全球尺度干旱后恢复能力数据集。本研究通过计算多类植物生理与水力参数的恢复指数，量化了植物干旱后恢复能力，所涉参数包括叶水势（leaf water potential）、净光合速率（net photosynthetic rate）、叶片导水率（leaf hydraulic conductance）及地上生物量（shoot biomass）。本研究对比了四类植物功能型（plant functional types，含落叶被子植物（deciduous angiosperms）、常绿被子植物（evergreen angiosperms）、裸子植物（gymnosperms）与作物（crops））、两种植物生长型（plant growth forms，即灌木（shrubs）与乔木（trees））、两种水分管理策略（water management strategies，分为等水型（isohydric）与异水型（anisohydric））、四类木质部孔隙类型（xylem porosity types，包含散孔材（diffuse）、环孔材（ring）、半环孔材（semi-ring）与管胞型（tracheid））以及四大生物群系（biomes，即硬叶旱生林（dry sclerophyll forest）、北方针叶林（boreal forest）、温带森林（temperate forest）与热带/亚热带森林（tropical/subtropical forest））间的恢复能力幅度差异。研究发现，在重度水分胁迫后无法立即完全恢复的现象在所有植物功能型与生长型中普遍存在；而干旱后恢复的速率与幅度则因植物分类群与地理分布范围的不同而存在显著差异。总体而言，植物水力结构（plant hydraulic architecture）、叶片解剖结构（leaf anatomy）与生理特征会影响其恢复潜力，同时也反映了植物适应生境的演化结果。鉴于植物功能性状（plant functional traits）在调控各生物群系碳存储过程中的核心作用，深入解析植物干旱后恢复能力，有助于提升我们在快速变化的气候背景下对生态系统生产力的预测精度。