Plant water use strategies predict restoration success across degraded drylands

Plant strategies for coping with water limitation are likely to mediate restoration outcomes in degraded dryland ecosystems. Tradeoffs in traits related to water acquisition and use can intensify in more arid environments, making their effects on dryland restoration success even more salient. However, isolating the effects of drought responses from those of other environmental factors, as well as identifying the specific drought resistance traits that influence restoration success, can be difficult. In the present study, we couple a controlled dry-down experiment with a cross-site restoration field trial of out-planted seedlings (RestoreNet) using a suite of dryland herbaceous plant species from the same seed sources. We quantified interspecific variation in physiological responses to drought, specifically reductions in stomatal conductance (gs) and stem water potential (SWP), by comparing well-watered control plants to those experiencing decreasing soil moisture. Drought responses of ..., Data in this study include (1) survival values from RestoreNet field sites, and (2) physiological data from a controlled, mesocosm dry-down experiment. Data were QA/QC'd in Excel and processed in R.,在退化旱地生态系统中，植物应对水分限制的策略或可介导生态恢复的最终结果。与水分获取和利用相关的功能性状权衡在更为干旱的生境中会进一步加剧，使得这些性状对旱地恢复成效的影响更为显著。然而，若要将干旱响应的效应与其他环境因素的效应相分离，同时明确影响恢复成效的特定抗旱功能性状，仍颇具挑战。 本研究将受控干旱驯化实验与针对同一批种子来源的旱地草本植物群落的移栽幼苗跨站点恢复田间试验（RestoreNet）相结合。通过对比充分供水的对照植株与经历土壤水分持续降低的处理植株，我们量化了干旱胁迫下的种间生理响应差异，具体包括气孔导度（stomatal conductance, gs）与茎水势（stem water potential, SWP）的下降幅度。 本研究的干旱响应相关结果……，本研究数据集包含两部分内容：(1) RestoreNet田间试验站点的幼苗存活数据，以及(2) 受控中宇宙（mesocosm）干旱驯化实验获取的生理数据。所有数据均在Excel中完成质量保证与质量控制（QA/QC）流程，并在R语言环境中进行处理。