Hydraulic lift moves deep soil water toward shallow roots at night
Deep-rooted trees can pull moist water from lower soil layers by day, then at night passively leak some of that water into drier upper soil where fine roots and understory plants feed.
The process — hydraulic lift or redistribution — does not require a pump so much as water potential gradients along continuous root pathways. Neighbors and seedlings may drink from the redistributed moisture.
A tall tree is a vertical well. After sunset it can share deep reserves upward, softening drought stress in the shallow root zone it overshadows by day.
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