DOI: 10.5061/dryad.zcrjdfnrq
title: Sex-specific non-structural carbohydrate variation and hydraulics explain differences in drought resistance of Populus euphratica females and males along an aridity gradient

description: Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) are essential for the osmotic
 adjustment and maintenance of the hydraulic functioning of trees, but
 knowledge about the relationship between NSC dynamics and hydraulics
 during drought stress is still limited, especially in dioecious plants. We
 investigated photosynthetic carbon assimilation, xylem hydraulics and
 related functional traits, and explored whether hydraulics are linked to
 NSC dynamics in the leaves and branches of Populus euphratica
 females and males along an aridity gradient in the Xinjiang Province,
 China. Both sexes of P. euphratica had increased intrinsic water
 use efficiency (WUE), percent loss of conductivity (PLC) and xylem
 pressure inducing 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity (P50), but decreased
 net photosynthetic rate (Pn), sapwood-specific hydraulic conductivity (Ks)
 and hydraulic safety margin (leaf mid-day water potential-P50, HSM50)
 associated with the reduction in the soil water content. Furthermore,
 females and males have different hydraulic strategies related to NSC
 dynamics under low soil water content conditions. Males had higher Ks,
 wood density (WD), HSM50, Pn, WUE, leaf dry mass per area (LMA) and leaf
 soluble sugar levels, and lower branch soluble sugar levels, PLC and P50
 values than females under extreme drought conditions, indicating that
 males had a more resistant xylem and can maintain water flow and leaf
 turgor probably due to the greater availability of soluble sugars to be
 used for osmotic adjustments. In addition, females had a lower Ks, WD and
 LMA and higher branch soluble sugar levels and PLC, implying that females
 were more vulnerable to cavitation and required higher branch soluble
 sugar levels for embolism repair under extreme drought conditions.
 Synthesis. Due to the spatial sexual segregation across resource
 gradients, dioecious plants are more vulnerable to rapid climate change.
 The different hydraulic strategies linked to NSC dynamics between females
 and males may result in a situation that one sex is more prone to an
 increasingly long and intense drought than the other one. This study
 improves our predictions for future climate change impacts on dioecious P.
 euphratica and provides theoretical knowledge for restoration and
 afforestation in P. euphratica forests.
description: Yu et al. (2025), Data from: Sex-specific non-structural carbohydrate
 variation and hydraulics explain differences in drought resistance of
 Populus euphratica females and males along an aridity gradient The dataset
 includes the measured data of leaf soluble sugar content, leaf starch
 content, leaf NSC content, branch soluble sugar content, branch starch
 content, branch NSC content, the net photosynthetic rate, the intrinsic
 water use efficiency, leaf mass per area, wood density, water potential,
 soil water content, sapwood-specific hydraulic conductivity, hydraulic
 safety margin, the percent loss of hydraulic conductivity, the xylem
 pressure inducing 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity in P. euphratica
 females and males across four forest sites. For additional information,
 please email Lei Yu or Chunyang Li
 ([yulei_eco@163.com](mailto:yulei_eco@163.com),
 [licy@imde.ac.cn](mailto:licy@imde.ac.cn)). Abbreviations of the dataset
 of this data: LSS, leaf soluble sugar content (mg/g) LST, leaf starch
 content (mg/g) LNSC, leaf NSC content (mg/g) BSS, branch soluble sugar
 content (mg/g) BST, branch starch content (mg/g) BNSC, branch NSC content
 (mg/g) WD, wood density (g/cm3) LMA, leaf mass per area (g m-2) PLC, the
 percent loss of hydraulic conductivity (%) Ks, sapwood-specific hydraulic
 conductivity (kg m-1 s-1 MPa-1) SWC, soil water content (%) WP, water
 potential (MPa) Pn, the net photosynthetic rate (μmol m-2 s-1) WUE, the
 intrinsic water use efficiency (μmol mmol-1) P50, the xylem pressure
 inducing 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity (MPa) HSM50, hydraulic safety
 margin (MPa)