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In the face of adverse conditions, people might feel tempted by two radically different options — hunker down and wait for conditions to improve, or press on and hope for the best. It would seem that trees employ similar options when the climate turns dry and hot. Researchers have uncovered details of the radically divergent strategies that two common tree species employ to cope with drought in southwestern Colorado.
As they report in a new paper in the journal Global Change Biology, one tree species shuts down production and conserves water, while the other alters its physiology to continue growing and using water. As the entire western United States becomes warmer and drier through man-made climate change, these findings shed light on how woody plants may confront twin scourges of less water and hot weather.Image credit: Leander Anderegg
