UC Berkeley

Woody plants may facilitate the establishment of seedlings with crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) by ameliorating the abiotic environment through an increase in soil water availability. Because of the low transpiration rate in shallow-rooted CAM plants and the consequently high soil water contents in the shallow soil, deep-rooted trees in tree–CAM associations could perform hydraulic descent transporting water from wetter shallow soil to drier deep soil in arid environments. It remains unclear, however, whether a high rate of hydraulic descent can turn the facilitation of CAM plants by woody plants into competition. In this study, we develop a mechanistic model to investigate the facilitation of shallow-rooted CAM plants by deep-rooted woody plants in the access to soil water resources along a rainfall gradient. The model results show that in the case of low-to-moderate root overlap woody plants could facilitate CAM plants in access to soil water; this effect is mainly induced by the reduction in evaporation from the soil surface due to shading. Both shading and hydraulic descent decrease (or hydraulic lift increases) along a rainfall gradient, thereby favoring facilitation. Investment in deep roots by woody plants is usually thought to increase niche differentiation with shallow-rooted plants, thereby reducing the competition and promoting species coexistence. This study indicates that deep root development could also favor competition through the mechanism of hydraulic descent, thereby changing our understanding of the role of root depth in niche differentiation between shallow and deep-rooted plants.