Trees' tolerance, watered down:
Despite recent, torrential rains, most of Southern California remains in a drought. Accordingly, many residents plant trees prized for drought tolerance, but a new UC Riverside-led study shows these trees lose this tolerance once they're watered.
One goal of the study was to understand how artificial irrigation affects the trees' carbon and water use. To find out, the researchers examined 30 species of trees spread across Southern California's urban areas from the coast to the desert. They then compared those trees with the same species growing wild.
"We found that, particularly as you move toward the desert regions, the same species of urban trees use much more water than their natural counterparts, even trees considered drought tolerant," said study lead and former UC Riverside botany graduate student Peter Ibsen, currently with the U.S. Geological Survey.
[...] Drought tolerant trees often restrict their water use to protect themselves from drying out when temperatures rise. However, with the exception of ficus, the irrigated trees all increased their water intake.
"Generally, they're not conserving it," Ibsen said. "Given the extra water, they will use it all."
[...] In these and other ways, urban trees are so unique in their behaviors that they can be classified as having their own distinct ecology. "Urban forests are different than anything else on the planet, even though all the species are found elsewhere on the planet," Ibsen said.
[...] It is unclear whether overwatered trees can regain their ability to thrive in drought conditions if the water is removed. Also unclear is the specific amount of water people ought to give their trees in order to for them to thrive and retain their best attributes. Both issues are areas the researchers will be studying, going forward.
For now, Ibsen recommends that gardeners interested in conserving water refrain from planting their drought tolerant tree on an irrigated lawn. "If you're buying a tree that's meant to be drought tolerant, let it tolerate a drought," he said.
Journal Reference:
Peter C. Ibsen, Louis S. Santiago, Sheri A. Shiflett, et al., Irrigated urban trees exhibit greater functional trait plasticity compared to natural stands [open], Bio Lett, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0448
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17, @05:42PM
"[A] new UC Riverside-led study shows these trees lose this tolerance once they're watered."
"It is unclear whether overwatered trees can regain their ability to thrive in drought conditions if the water is removed."
Which is it UC Riverside? Sounds like quality research going on over there. Needs more research.
(Score: -1, Troll) by crafoo on Friday February 17, @05:48PM (8 children)
The only answer to any problem, ever, of course is more unelected government operatives, more diversity-hire make-work "research for retards": more grift, more control, more selectively-enforced laws, more rules for the jews to jew their business around and ruin your country.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17, @05:54PM
Oh wow that went off the rails quick.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Tork on Friday February 17, @05:54PM (5 children)
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17, @06:48PM (1 child)
+ Good cop (and/or White perp)
> Crafoo's a little upset this morning, so could everyone please be extra-nice to him?
+ Bad cop (and/or non-White perp)
(slams Crafoo against the wall, cuffs him)
(Score: 5, Touché) by Tork on Friday February 17, @07:14PM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 17, @09:41PM (2 children)
I might be nice if I found a box of Reese's on my desk . . . or not.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Tork on Friday February 17, @09:43PM (1 child)
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 17, @09:52PM
I'm not real picky. I've been eating those Reese's cookies lately - I can't recall the cute name they've been given.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17, @05:55PM
You are boring. Grow up, will ya?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by richtopia on Friday February 17, @06:06PM (3 children)
It is silly to irrigate a tree that is native or drought tolerant. Yes, when establishing a transplant extra water helps deal with the stress, but why did you plant that specific tree if you water it every day?
I'm a bit of a libertarian, so the subject line jumps to a potential solution: tax water or irrigation. If you want to water your yard, you need to be ready to pay for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17, @06:51PM (1 child)
> but why did you plant that specific tree if you water it every day?
Probably goes without saying, but the tree is likely being watered as a side effect of watering the grass around the tree. It's the grass (imo) that needs all that water to stay green.
Why they chose a drought resistant tree? No idea, maybe fashion?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 17, @09:46PM
Richtopia's question still stands: If you're going to water anyway, why bother with a drought resistant tree? It's self defeating. Want a native tree? Give it native conditions. If it only rains once or twice a year in your environment, but you insist on watering every week, you're definitely doing something wrong.
Tear out the lawn, plant all native plants as densely as Mother Nature plants them, and leave well enough alone. If Mother tends to plant a tree in 30,000 sq ft, don't expect to plant 500 trees in your 30,000 sq ft yard. Mimic nature, or don't even bother with the virtue signaling.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17, @07:25PM
Bb..ut how will the farmers grow almonds in the desert if they have to pay for the water??? It's commie-nism plain and simple.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MostCynical on Friday February 17, @08:09PM (6 children)
people who owned our house before us had a watering system.
Every morning it would turn on and water for 15-30 minutes, around 3am.
It woke me up when it turned on and it woke me when it turned off.
I turned it off.
Eight years later, nothing has died (wit the exception of a couple of gardenias) and the grass bits are still green.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17, @08:18PM
wAtEr ThEorY iS A hOaX
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 17, @09:50PM (4 children)
Tomatoes are a good example of plants that are commonly overwatered. If you water them, and worse, fertilize them throughout the season, the roots won't sink into the ground. At the end of the season, you can pull the entire root system out with little effort. If you don't water them, the roots will sink deep into the ground, in search of water. At the end of season, you may try to pull out the roots, but you're only going to pull off the top couple of inches.
Most grasses are the same way. The less you water them, the deeper the roots are going to dig.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18, @01:37AM (2 children)
Small yard, we typically have cherry tomatoes in pots, about a foot diameter and a foot+ high. When we water, we soak the pots until water runs out the holes at the bottom, then wait for the soil to almost go dry, then soak hard again. Seems to work pretty well.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 18, @01:58AM (1 child)
I think that is what a lot of reputable growers recommend. Be careful - if the tomatoes get overly dry, then you water them, the tomatoes will split due to too rapid expansion.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Sunday February 19, @12:53AM
It's also varietal. Early Girl and Roma almost never crack. "Beefsteaks" and those pink and purple "heritage" tomatoes crack a lot, under the exact same conditions (growing right next to each other).
I used to grow more varieties, but I'm down to Early Girl and VT100 (cherry type) and random volunteers... tho I don't need to plant any VT100 on purpose; they're everywhere, like weeds. Coming up from last year's seed they're also quite good at dodging the late frosts.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Reziac on Saturday February 18, @04:08AM
I have not found this to be true. And in my garden I have both planted-and-watered tomatoes, and feral-neglected tomatoes (of the same varieties; every dropped fruit makes a clump of seedlings). The watered tomatoes always have bigger, deeper roots, and produce more fruit.
However, one suspects many people water shallowly, which will not cause roots to go seeking water; if the water is shallow, the roots will be too. Rather, you need to water deeply, so the entire layer of topsoil gets wet (not soggy, but with water passing through it). Then you get big-ass deep roots, and a heavier crop.
Anyway, this study is just dumb. Desert plants can scrape by on less water, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't like more, if they can get it. Eg. tamarisk (saltcedar) are wonderfully drought-tolerant, but in dry conditions they're not much more than a big bush. Given access to water, they grow into a very large tree, which then obviously will have higher water requirements, because it's bigger.
One of the "recommendations" that's come out of CA plant studies is that one should only plant locally-adapted CA poppies, because they won't do well elsewhere. Um... I brought CA-native seed with me when I moved back to Montana. And that's when I discovered that in Montana, California poppies are a short-lived perennial, that blooms even in cold weather (like, November, after it's been below zero). Appears to me that they're actually evolved to moderate conditions, but can =tolerate= much worse conditions.
There are feral peaches growing out in the desert. They don't make edible fruit (it's fibrous and cottony), and the trees are small and twisted, but they survive. Does that mean it's ideal? Hell no... but they tolerate the deficiency better than most. Sheep fescue (grass) is desert-native and can get by on next to no water, but it'll be sparse and 3 inches tall; water it even a little, and it makes a nice lawn. And so on.
Truth is even tho desert plants can scrape by on next to nothing, a lot of 'em are in fact stunted due to lack of water and nutrients. It's not so much that they're adapted to it, as that they're more adaptable than average.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.