Drought-induced tree death has become a serious problem in global forest ecosystems. Two nonexclusive hypotheses, hydraulic failure and carbon starvation, have been proposed to explain tree die-offs. To clarify the mechanisms, we investigated the physiological processes of drought-induced tree death in saplings with contrasting Huber values (sapwood area/total leaf area). First, hydraulic failure and reduced respiration were found in the initial process of tree decline, and in the last stage carbon starvation leaded to tree...

Pigment-based plumage colouration and its physiological properties have attracted many researchers to explain the evolution of such ornamental traits. These studies, however, assume the functional importance of the predominant pigment while ignoring that of other minor pigments, and few studies have focused on the composition of these pigments. Using the pheomelanin based plumage in two swallow species, we studied the allocation of two pigments (the predominant pigment, pheomelanin, and the minor pigment, eumelanin) in relation...