Testing the plant pneumatic method to estimate xylem embolism resistance in stems of temperate trees

Abstract Methods to estimate xylem embolism resistance generally rely on hydraulic measurements, which can be far from straightforward. Recently, a pneumatic method based on air flow measurements of terminal branch ends was proposed to construct vulnerability curves by linking the amount of air extr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tree physiology 2018-07, Vol.38 (7), p.1016-1025
Main Authors: Zhang, Ya, Lamarque, Laurent J, Torres-Ruiz, José M, Schuldt, Bernhard, Karimi, Zohreh, Li, Shan, Qin, De-Wen, Bittencourt, Paulo, Burlett, Régis, Cao, Kun-Fang, Delzon, Sylvain, Oliveira, Rafael, Pereira, Luciano, Jansen, Steven
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cycadopsida - physiology
Life Sciences
Magnoliopsida - physiology
Methods Paper
Plant Stems - physiology
Plant Transpiration
Trees - physiology
Vegetal Biology
Xylem - physiology
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Summary:Abstract Methods to estimate xylem embolism resistance generally rely on hydraulic measurements, which can be far from straightforward. Recently, a pneumatic method based on air flow measurements of terminal branch ends was proposed to construct vulnerability curves by linking the amount of air extracted from a branch with the degree of embolism. We applied this novel technique for 10 temperate tree species, including six diffuse, two ring-porous and two gymnosperm species, and compared the pneumatic curves with hydraulic ones obtained from either the flow-centrifuge or the hydraulic-bench dehydration method. We found that the pneumatic method provides a good estimate of the degree of xylem embolism for all angiosperm species. The xylem pressure at 50% and 88% loss of hydraulic conductivity (i.e., Ψ50 and Ψ88) based on the methods applied showed a strongly significant correlation for all eight angiosperms. However, the pneumatic method showed significantly reduced Ψ50 values for the two conifers. Our findings suggest that the pneumatic method could provide a fast and accurate approach for angiosperms due to its convenience and feasibility, at least within the range of embolism resistances covered by our samples.
ISSN:1758-4469
0829-318X
1758-4469
DOI:10.1093/treephys/tpy015