A network model links wood anatomy to xylem tissue hydraulic behaviour and vulnerability to cavitation

Autor: Gabriel G. Katul, Frederic Lens, Jean-Christophe Domec, Assaad Mrad, C. W. Huang
Přispěvatelé: Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University [Durham], Interactions Sol Plante Atmosphère (UMR ISPA), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques de Bordeaux-Aquitaine (Bordeaux Sciences Agro), Department of Biology [New Mexico], The University of New Mexico [Albuquerque], Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Universiteit Leiden [Leiden], Naturalis Biodiversity Center [Leiden]
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Plant, Cell and Environment
Plant, Cell and Environment, Wiley, 2018, 41 (12), pp.2718-2730. ⟨10.1111/pce.13415⟩
ISSN: 0140-7791
1365-3040
DOI: 10.1111/pce.13415⟩
Popis: International audience; Plant xylem response to drought is routinely represented by a vulnerability curve (VC). Despite the significance of VCs, the connection between anatomy and tissue-level hydraulic response to drought remains a subject of inquiry. We present a numerical model of water flow in flowering plant xylem that combines current knowledge on diffuse-porous anatomy and embolism spread to explore this connection. The model produces xylem networks and uses different parameterizations of intervessel connection vulnerability to embolism spread: the Young-Laplace equation and pit membrane stretching. Its purpose is upscaling processes occurring on the microscopic length scales, such as embolism propagation through pit membranes, to obtain tissue-scale hydraulics. The terminal branch VC of Acer glabrum was successfully reproduced relying only on real observations of xylem tissue anatomy. A sensitivity analysis shows that hydraulic performance and VC shape and location along the water tension axis are heavily dependent on anatomy. The main result is that the linkage between pit-scale and vessel-scale anatomical characters, along with xylem network topology, affects VCs significantly. This work underscores the importance of stepping up research related to the three-dimensional network structure of xylem tissues. The proposed model's versatility makes it an important tool to explore similar future questions.
Databáze: OpenAIRE