A semi-automated method for measuring xylem vessel length distribution

Knowledge about the length of xylem vessels is essential to understand water transport in plants because these multicellular units show a 100-fold variation, from less than a centimeter to many meters. However, the available methods to estimate vessel length distribution (VLD) are excessively time consuming and do not allow large and in-depth surveys. Here, we describe a semi-automated method to measure VLD using an automated Pneumatron device. Gas conductivity of a xylem tissue with a certain length is estimated in a straightforward and precise way with the Pneumatron in a way theoretically similar to the air-injection method. The method presented enables fast and easy measurements using multiple devices simultaneously (>50 samples day-1), which is a significant advantage. Here, the apparatus is described in detail as well as how measurements are taken. We also present the software and an R-script for data analysis. The method described represents an important contribution to studies on plant hydraulic architecture and can improve our understanding about the role of VLD in plant performance under varying water availability.

Plant hydraulic architecture through time: lessons and questions on the evolution of vascular systems

ABSTRACTStudies of anatomically preserved fossils provide a wealth of information on the evolution of plant vascular systems through time, from the oldest evidence of vascular plants more than 400 million years ago to the rise of the modern angiosperm-dominated flora. In reviewing the key contributions of the fossil record, we discuss knowledge gaps and major outstanding questions about the processes attending the evolution of vascular systems. The appearance and diversification of early vascular plants in the late Silurian-Devonian was accompanied by the evolution of different types of tracheids, which initially improved the hydraulics of conduction but had less of an effect on mechanical support. This was followed in the Devonian and Carboniferous by an increase in complexity of the organization of primary vascular tissues, with different types of steles evolving in response to mechanical, hydraulic, and developmental regulatory constraints. Concurrently, secondary vascular tissues, such as wood, produced by unifacial or bifacial cambia are documented in a wide array of plant groups, including some that do not undergo secondary growth today. While wood production has traditionally been thought to have evolved independently in different lineages, accumulating evidence suggests that this taxonomic breadth reflects mosaic deployment of basic developmental mechanisms, some of which are derived by common ancestry. For most of vascular plant history, wood contained a single type of conducting element: tracheids (homoxyly). However, quantitative (e.g. diameter and length) and qualitative (e.g. pitting type) diversity of these tracheids allowed various taxa to cover a broad range of hydraulic properties. A second type of conducting elements, vessels, is first documented in an extinct late Permian (c. 260 Ma) group. While the putative hydraulic advantages of vessels are still debated, wood characterized by presence of vessels (heteroxyly) would become the dominant type, following the diversification of angiosperms during the Cretaceous.

Effects of drought stress on hydraulic architecture of seedlings from five populations of green ash

Two-year-old seedlings of green ash, Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh., representing five native populations from an east to west precipitation gradient, were grown under contrasting moisture regimes in the greenhouse. At midsummer and the end of the growing season, leaf areas, earlywood and latewood transverse areas, and several structural attributes of the xylem hydraulic system were compared between well-watered and drought-stressed seedlings. Xylem hydraulic capacity was essentially fixed by midsummer. Drought significantly reduced both earlywood and latewood production but had no significant effect on potentially functional xylem area (Apf) or flow velocity (v). The principal effect of drought on hydraulic architecture was a significant reduction in leaf area and therefore the ratios of potentially functional xylem area to unit leaf area (Apf to A1) and leaf specific conductivity (LSC). In contrast, populations differed significantly in all measured parameters, especially under drought conditions. Path analysis of LSC and its component variables revealed that treatment differences in LSC arose primarily through differences in A1; contributions from variation in Apf and especially flow velocity were relatively minor. In contrast, population variation in LSC could be attributed in roughly equal measure to variation in Apf and A1, and to a lesser degree to variation in flow velocity. The covariance between A1 and Apf was important for both treatment and population variation in LSC, suggesting a fundamental physiological linkage between these two aspects of plant hydraulic architecture. Among populations, high flow velocity tended to be associated with low Apf to A1 values, thereby minimizing population differences in the composite character LSC. Populations differed significantly in all attributes studied, in one environment or another, but those at either end of the precipitation gradient did not differ in several presumably important structural attributes. Although plant hydraulic architecture is genetically controlled and variable in green ash seedlings, its adaptive significance cannot be considered in isolation from other factors that control plant response to water stress. Key words: leaf specific conductivity, ecotypic variation, xylem structure.