ArticlePlant diversity2025
Drought tolerance traits explain differential stem growth rates of evergreen and deciduous trees in a tropical karst forest.
Article in Plant diversity, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adaptive Responses of Tropical Crops: A Multi-Scale Omics Integrated Perspective.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Long-Term Temporal Divergence in Post-Drought Resilience Decline Between Deciduous and Evergreen Tree Species.Global change biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The karst forest in southwestern China is characterized by thin soil layers, numerous fissures and holes, resulting in low soil water availability and poor water retention, making it challenging for plant growth and survival. While the relationship between plant functional traits and tree growth performance has been extensively studied, the links between tree seasonal growth and drought-tolerant traits in tree species with different leaf habit remains poorly understood. This study evaluated the associations between four-year averaged rainy season stem diameter growth rate and 17 branch and leaf traits across evergreen and deciduous species in a tropical karst forest in southwest China. The cross-species variations in tree growth rates were related to plant hydraulic traits (e.g., vessel lumen diameter, xylem vessel density, stomatal density, and stomatal size) and leaf anatomical traits (e.g., total leaf thickness, lower/upper epidermis thickness, and spongy thickness). The growth of evergreen trees exhibited lower hydraulic efficiency but greater drought tolerance than deciduous tree, which enabled them to maintain higher persistence under low soil water availability and consequently a relatively longer growing season. In contrast, deciduous species showed no correlation between their functional traits and growth rate. The distinct water use strategies of evergreen and deciduous trees may offer a potential explanation for their co-existence in the tropical karst forests.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.