Differential growth rate, water use efficiency and climate sensitivity between males and females of Ilex aquifolium in north-western Spain

Sanchez Vilas, Julia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4049-8443, Hernández-Alonso, Héctor, Rozas, Vicente and Retuerto, Rubén 2025. Differential growth rate, water use efficiency and climate sensitivity between males and females of Ilex aquifolium in north-western Spain. Annals of Botany 135 (1-2) , pp. 357-370. 10.1093/aob/mcae126

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Abstract

Background and aims Dioecious plant species, i.e., those in which male and female functions are housed in different individuals, are particularly vulnerable to global environmental changes. For long-lived plant species, such as trees, long-term studies are imperative to understand how growth patterns and their sensitivity to climate variability differentially affect the sexes. Methods Here, we explore long-term intersexual differences in wood traits, namely radial growth rates, water use efficiency quantified as stable carbon isotope abundance of wood cellulose, and their climate sensitivity in Ilex aquifolium trees growing in a natural population in NW Spain. Key results We found that sex differences in secondary growth rates were variable over time, with males outperforming females in both radial growth rates and water use efficiency in recent decades. Summer water stress significantly reduced the growth of female trees in the following growing season, while the growth of male trees was primarily favoured by cloudy and rainy conditions the previous fall and winter combined with low cloud cover and warm conditions in summer. Sex-dependent lagged correlations between radial growth and water availability were found, with a strong association between tree growth and cumulative water availability in females at 30 months and in males at 10 months. Conclusions Overall, our results point to greater vulnerability of female tress to increasing drought, which could lead to sex-ratio biases threatening population viability in the future.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Biosciences
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0305-7364
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 August 2024
Date of Acceptance:	31 July 2024
Last Modified:	10 Mar 2025 13:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/171256

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