Beech is particularly sensitive to a lack of water
Published: Friday, Jul 26th 2024, 09:20
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All trees suffer from drought and adapting forests to climate change is a global challenge. Beech, which is one of the most common and important tree species in native forests, is particularly sensitive to water shortages.
"The tree has shallow roots that are unable to draw water deep out of the ground," explains Professor Charlotte Grossiord, head of the Plant Ecology Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), to the Keystone-SDA news agency.
In hot and dry weather, beech trees shed leaves to limit water loss. Above all, however, beech trees are affected more quickly than other trees by so-called gas embolism: When water becomes scarce, air bubbles form in the vessels that transport the water into the canopy.
These air bubbles can cause the vessels to burst. The beech can then no longer pump water into the tree crown until the following spring - or less well, depending on how many vessels have burst.
The silver fir is also suffering particularly from the drought in Switzerland, while the spruce is under pressure from the bark beetle.
©Keystone/SDA
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