Water Transport Properties of Vine and Tree Stems in a Tropical Deciduous Forest

Abstract

Excised stem segments of vines had higher specific hydraulic conductivities (flow rate per pressure gradient per stem transverse area) than did trees during the dry season in a deciduous forest in Jalisco, México. Vine species averaged from 2.7 to 203 10‐3 m2 MPa‐1 s‐1 and tree species from 0.8 to 5.1 10‐3 m2 MPa‐1 s‐1. Only three of the 20 species retain their leaves during part or all of the dry season, and these included the vine and the tree with the lowest conductivities within their growth forms. An index of the mean diameter of the six widest vessels per sample was positively and significantly correlated with specific conductivity for the vines but not the trees. Stem density (g cm‐3, dry weight/wet volume) was not correlated with either specific conductivity or vessel diameter index for vines or trees.

Stem anatomy and relative growth rate in seedlings of a wide range of woody plant species and types

“…Higher Dmax values in deciduous than evergreen species, as demonstrated for 80 woody species, have also been reported for adult plants, both within (Rury and Dickison 1984;Villar-Salvador et al 1997) and between taxa of the same life form (Gartner et al 1990). Conduit width results from an evolutionary trade-o between xylem safety and hydraulic eciency (Zimmermann 1983), the balance between both trends depending on macroclimatic factors (Zhang et al 1992).…”

“…Constraints in the xylem of adult plants have been demonstrated to dier between leaf habits (Sobrado 1993) and life forms (Baas and Schweingruber 1987;Ewers et al 1990;Gartner et al 1990). Therefore, stem attributes will be compared between deciduous and evergreen seedlings and between dierent life forms in order to test whether such variation already exists at an early developmental stage.…”

Liana anatomy: a broad perspective on structural evolution of the vascular system

“…The widest vessel was found in the eudicot Dioclea, Leguminosae, with vessels up to 500 μm wide (measured in this study) and the longest vessel, i.e., a series of vessel elements, was found in Amphilophium (= Pithecoctenium) crucigerum, Bignoniaceae, at 7.73 m long (Ewers et al 1990). In addition, lianas have xylem that remains conductive for a longer time than trees (Ewers & Fisher 1989;Gartner et al 1990;, Holbrook & Putz 1996. Increases in vessel lumen raise water flow exponentially to the 4th power, as described by the Hagen-Poiseuille equation (Sperry et al 2006).…”

The evolution of angiosperm lianescence: a perspective from xylem structure‐function

“…17.3C, 17.3D). The enormous K S values of liana stems result from water flow through a few wide diameter vessels (Gartner et al 1990;Carlquist 1991). For instance, in the hook climber Bauhinia fassoglensis (Fabaceae), 14% of the vessels of the widest diameter class contributed 95% of the total theoretical hydraulic conductance as calculated by the Hagen-Poiseuille theory of ideal pipes (Ewers et al 1991a).…”