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Liu YY, Chao L, Li ZG, Ma L, Hu BQ, Zhu SD, Cao KF. Water storage capacity is inversely associated with xylem embolism resistance in tropical karst tree species. TREE PHYSIOLOGY 2024; 44:tpae017. [PMID: 38281245 DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpae017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2023] [Accepted: 01/21/2024] [Indexed: 01/30/2024]
Abstract
Tropical karst habitats are characterized by limited and patchy soil, large rocky outcrops and porous substrates, resulting in high habitat heterogeneity and soil moisture fluctuations. Xylem hydraulic efficiency and safety can determine the drought adaptation and spatial distribution of woody plants growing in karst environments. In this study, we measured sapwood-specific hydraulic conductivity (Ks), vulnerability to embolism, wood density, saturated water content, and vessel and pit anatomical characteristics in the branch stems of 12 evergreen tree species in a tropical karst seasonal rainforest in southwestern China. We aimed to characterize the effects of structural characteristics on hydraulic efficiency and safety. Our results showed that there was no significant correlation between Ks and hydraulic safety across the tropical karst woody species. Ks was correlated with hydraulic vessel diameter (r = 0.80, P < 0.05) and vessel density (r = -0.60, P < 0.05), while the stem water potential at 50 and 88% loss of hydraulic conductivity (P50 and P88) were both significantly correlated with wood density (P < 0.05) and saturated water content (P = 0.052 and P < 0.05, respectively). High stem water storage capacity was associated with low cavitation resistance possibly because of its buffering the moisture fluctuations in karst environments. However, both Ks and P50/P88 were decoupled from the anatomical traits of pit and pit membranes. This may explain the lack of tradeoff between hydraulic safety and efficiency in tropical karst evergreen tree species. Our results suggest that diverse hydraulic trait combination may facilitate species coexistence in karst environments with high spatial heterogeneity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan-Yan Liu
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China
- Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Resources Use in Beibu Gulf, Ministry of Education, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Intelligent Simulation, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530001, China
| | - Lin Chao
- Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Resources Use in Beibu Gulf, Ministry of Education, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Intelligent Simulation, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530001, China
| | - Zhong-Guo Li
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China
- Experimental Center of Tropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Pingxiang 532600, Guangxi, China
| | - Lin Ma
- Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Resources Use in Beibu Gulf, Ministry of Education, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Intelligent Simulation, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530001, China
| | - Bao-Qing Hu
- Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Resources Use in Beibu Gulf, Ministry of Education, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Intelligent Simulation, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530001, China
| | - Shi-Dan Zhu
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China
| | - Kun-Fang Cao
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China
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Ziemińska K, Rosa E, Gleason SM, Holbrook NM. Wood day capacitance is related to water content, wood density, and anatomy across 30 temperate tree species. PLANT, CELL & ENVIRONMENT 2020; 43:3048-3067. [PMID: 32935340 DOI: 10.1111/pce.13891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2019] [Revised: 09/05/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Water released from wood during transpiration (capacitance) can meaningfully affect daily water use and drought response. To provide context for better understanding of capacitance mechanisms, we investigated links between capacitance and wood anatomy. On twigs of 30 temperate angiosperm tree species, we measured day capacitance (between predawn and midday), water content, wood density, and anatomical traits, that is, vessel dimensions, tissue fractions, and vessel-tissue contact fractions (fraction of vessel circumference in contact with other tissues). Across all species, wood density (WD) and predawn lumen volumetric water content (VWCL-pd ) together were the strongest predictors of day capacitance (r2adj = .44). Vessel-tissue contact fractions explained an additional ~10% of the variation in day capacitance. Regression models were not improved by including tissue lumen fractions. Among diffuse-porous species, VWCL-pd and vessel-ray contact fraction together were the best predictors of day capacitance, whereas among semi/ring-porous species, VWCL-pd , WD and vessel-fibre contact fraction were the best predictors. At predawn, wood was less than fully saturated for all species (lumen relative water content = 0.52 ± 0.17). Our findings imply that day capacitance depends on the amount of stored water, tissue connectivity and the bulk wood properties arising from WD (e.g., elasticity), rather than the fraction of any particular tissue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kasia Ziemińska
- Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Plant Ecology and Evolution, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Emily Rosa
- Department of Biology, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California, USA
| | - Sean M Gleason
- United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service, Water Management and Systems Research Unit, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - N Michele Holbrook
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Levionnois S, Coste S, Nicolini E, Stahl C, Morel H, Heuret P. Scaling of petiole anatomies, mechanics and vasculatures with leaf size in the widespread Neotropical pioneer tree species Cecropia obtusa Trécul (Urticaceae). TREE PHYSIOLOGY 2020; 40:245-258. [PMID: 31976541 DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpz136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2018] [Revised: 11/28/2019] [Accepted: 12/18/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Although the leaf economic spectrum has deepened our understanding of leaf trait variability, little is known about how leaf traits scale with leaf area. This uncertainty has resulted in the assumption that leaf traits should vary by keeping the same pace of variation with increases in leaf area across the leaf size range. We evaluated the scaling of morphological, tissue-surface and vascular traits with overall leaf area, and the functional significance of such scaling. We examined 1,271 leaves for morphological traits, and 124 leaves for anatomical and hydraulic traits, from 38 trees of Cecropia obtusa Trécul (Urticaceae) in French Guiana. Cecropia is a Neotropical genus of pioneer trees that can exhibit large laminas (0.4 m2 for C. obtusa), with leaf size ranging by two orders of magnitude. We measured (i) tissue fractions within petioles and their second moment of area, (ii) theoretical xylem hydraulic efficiency of petioles and (iii) the extent of leaf vessel widening within the hydraulic path. We found that different scaling of morphological trait variability allows for optimisation of lamina display among larger leaves, especially the positive allometric relationship between lamina area and petiole cross-sectional area. Increasing the fraction of pith is a key factor that increases the geometrical effect of supportive tissues on mechanical rigidity and thereby increases carbon-use efficiency. We found that increasing xylem hydraulic efficiency with vessel size results in lower leaf lamina area: xylem ratios, which also results in potential carbon savings for large leaves. We found that the vessel widening is consistent with hydraulic optimisation models. Leaf size variability modifies scaling of leaf traits in this large-leaved species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sébastien Levionnois
- UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, UA, UG, 97379 Kourou Cedex, France
| | - Sabrina Coste
- UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, UA, UG, 97379 Kourou Cedex, France
| | - Eric Nicolini
- UMR AMAP, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Université de Montpellier, 34398 Montpellier, France
| | - Clément Stahl
- UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, UA, UG, 97379 Kourou Cedex, France
| | - Hélène Morel
- UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, UA, UG, 97379 Kourou Cedex, France
| | - Patrick Heuret
- UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, UA, UG, 97379 Kourou Cedex, France
- UMR AMAP, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Université de Montpellier, 34398 Montpellier, France
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Thibaut B. Three-dimensional printing, muscles, and skeleton: mechanical functions of living wood. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 2019; 70:3453-3466. [PMID: 30957846 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erz153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2018] [Accepted: 03/07/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Wood is well defined as an engineering material. However, living wood in the tree is often regarded only as a passive skeleton consisting of a sophisticated pipe system for the ascent of sap and a tree-like structure made of a complex material to resist external forces. There are two other active key roles of living wood in the field of biomechanics: (i) additive manufacturing of the whole structure by cell division and expansion, and (ii) a 'muscle' function of living fibres or tracheids generating forces at the sapwood periphery. The living skeleton representing most of the sapwood is a mere accumulation of dead tracheids and libriform fibres after their programmed cell death. It keeps a record of the two active roles of living wood in its structure, chemical composition, and state of residual stresses. Models and field experiments define four biomechanical traits based on stem geometry and parameters of wood properties resulting from additive manufacturing and force generation. Geometric parameters resulting from primary and secondary growth play the larger role. Passive wood properties are only secondary parameters, while dissymmetric force generation is key for movement, posture control, and tree reshaping after accidents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bernard Thibaut
- Laboratoire de Mécanique et Génie Civil, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France
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