Lack of Tradeoff between Leaf Hydraulic Efficiency and Safety across Six Contrasting Water-Stress Tolerant Fruit Tree Species

Weak tradeoff between xylem safety and xylem-specific hydraulic efficiency across the world's woody plant species.

The evolution of lignified xylem allowed for the efficient transport of water under tension, but also exposed the vascular network to the risk of gas emboli and the spread of gas between xylem conduits, thus impeding sap transport to the leaves. A well-known hypothesis proposes that the safety of xylem (its ability to resist embolism formation and spread) should trade off against xylem efficien...

Tradeoff between Stem Hydraulic Efficiency and Mechanical Strength Affects Leaf–Stem Allometry in 28 Ficus Tree Species

Leaf-stem allometry is an important spectrum that linked to biomass allocation and life history strategy in plants, although the determinants and evolutionary significance of leaf-stem allometry remain poorly understood. Leaf and stem architectures - including stem area/mass, petiole area/mass, lamina area/mass, leaf number, specific leaf area (LA), and mass-based leafing intensity (LI) - were ...

How are leaves plumbed inside a branch? Differences in leaf-to-leaf hydraulic sectoriality among six temperate tree species.

The transport of water, sugar, and nutrients in trees is restricted to specific vascular pathways, and thus organs may be relatively isolated from one another (i.e. sectored). Strongly sectored leaf-to-leaf pathways have been shown for the transport of sugar and signal molecules within a shoot, but not previously for water transport. The hydraulic sectoriality of leaf-to-leaf pathways was deter...

Hydraulic Efficiency and Safety of Xylem Sap Flow in Relation to Water Stress in Woody Plants

Contrasting physiological responses of six eucalyptus species to water deficit.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The genus Eucalyptus occupies a broad ecological range, forming the dominant canopy in many Australian ecosystems. Many Eucalyptus species are renowned for tolerance to aridity, yet inter-specific variation in physiological traits, particularly water relations parameters, contributing to this tolerance is weakly characterized only in a limited taxonomic range. The study test...