ArticleBiology letters2024
Effects of leaf silicon on drought performance of tropical tree seedlings.
Article in Biology letters, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Advances in Potassium Silicate-Induced Drought Tolerance in Tropical Tree Seedlings: Effects on Morphological Traits, Physiological Responses, and Biochemical Regulation.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Across 33 broad-leaved deciduous woody species, silicon enhances leaf lamina stiffness but not tensile strength whereas cellulose enhances both.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Effects of leaf silicon on drought performance of tropical tree seedlings.Biology letters · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Elevated leaf silicon (Si) concentrations improve drought resistance in cultivated plants, suggesting Si might also improve drought performance of wild species. Tropical tree species, for instance, take up substantial amounts of Si, and leaf Si varies markedly at local and regional scales, suggesting consequences for seedling drought resistance. Yet, whether elevated leaf Si improves seedling drought performance in tropical forests is unknown. To manipulate leaf Si concentrations, seedlings of seven tropical tree species were grown in Si-rich and -poor soil, before exposing them to drought in the forest understorey. Survival, growth and wilting were monitored. Elevated leaf Si did not improve drought survival and growth in any of the species. In one species, drought survival was reduced in seedlings previously grown in Si-rich soil, contrary to our expectation. Our results suggest that elevated leaf Si does not improve drought resistance of wild tropical tree species. Elevated leaf Si may even reduce drought performance, suggesting differences in soil conditions influencing leaf Si may contribute to soil-related variation of tropical seedling performance. Furthermore, our results are at odds with most studies on cultivated species and show that alleviative effects of Si in crops cannot be generalized to wild plants in natural systems.
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Registered trials
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