Permeability and structure of the wood of Sitka spruce

Petty, J. A.

doi:10.1098/rspb.1970.0016

Cited by 49 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Anatomical work has shown that the margo in latewood tracheids of many conifer species are inflexible and do not readily allow the torus to seal the pit aperture in the event of air entry (Domec et al, 2006). This is also apparent from the work of wood technologists, who have shown that latewood remains unaspirated in dried wood samples (Petty, 1970). Embolism spread primarily in the lateral direction, showing the progressive spread of embolism in the xylem of three woody plant species during dehydration: Q. robur (A-D), P. tremula 3 P. alba (E-H), and P. pinaster (I-L).…”

Section: Patterns Of Embolism Spread With Dehydrationmentioning

confidence: 77%

Noninvasive Measurement of Vulnerability to Drought-Induced Embolism by X-Ray Microtomography

et al. 2015

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Hydraulic failure induced by xylem embolism is one of the primary mechanisms of plant dieback during drought. However, many of the methods used to evaluate the vulnerability of different species to drought-induced embolism are indirect and invasive, increasing the possibility that measurement artifacts may occur. Here, we utilize x-ray computed microtomography (microCT) to directly visualize embolism formation in the xylem of living, intact plants with contrasting wood anatomy (Quercus robur, Populus tremula 3 Populus alba, and Pinus pinaster). These observations were compared with widely used centrifuge techniques that require destructive sampling. MicroCT imaging provided detailed spatial information regarding the dimensions and functional status of xylem conduits during dehydration. Vulnerability curves based on microCT observations of intact plants closely matched curves based on the centrifuge technique for species with short vessels (P. tremula 3 P. alba) or tracheids (P. pinaster). For ring porous Q. robur, the centrifuge technique significantly overestimated vulnerability to embolism, indicating that caution should be used when applying this technique to species with long vessels. These findings confirm that microCT can be used to assess the vulnerability to embolism on intact plants by direct visualization.

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Section: Patterns Of Embolism Spread With Dehydrationmentioning

confidence: 77%

Noninvasive Measurement of Vulnerability to Drought-Induced Embolism by X-Ray Microtomography

et al. 2015

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“…Since k was closely correlated with re of the largest tracheids, high R of suppressed trees may be attributed to narrower tracheids. On the other hand, some reports suggest that the lumen is not the main constituent of resistance to fluid flow through a tracheid (Petty 1970;Bolton and Petty 1975;Calkin et al 1986). Model simulations indicated that only 21.4% of R in tracheids of…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Resistance to water flow in xylem of Picea abies (L.) Karst. trees grown under contrasting light conditions

Sellin

1993

Trees

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Summary. The relative hydraulic conductivity (k) of xylem and resistance (R) to water flow through trunk, primary roots and branches in Picea abies trees growing under contrasting light conditions were investigated. The xylem permeability to water was measured by forcing 10 mM water solution of KC1 through excised wood specimens. From the values of k, the sapwood transverse area and the length of conducting segments, R of the whole trunk, branches and roots was calculated. The relative conductivity of xylem in open-grown trees exceeded that of shade-grown trees by 1.4-3.1 times, while k was closely correlated with the hydraulically effective radius (re) of the largest tracheids (r 2 was 0.85-0.94 for open-and 0.51-0.79 for shade-grown trees). Because of both a low k and a smaller sapwood area in shade-grown trees the resistance to water movement through their trunk, roots and branches was many times higher. The distribution of R between single segments of the water-conducting pathway differed considerably in trees from different sites. At high water status the largest share of the total resistance in open-as well as shade-grown trees resides in the apical part of the trunk. The contribution of the branches to total xylem resistance is supposed to increase with developing water deficit.

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“…The set of models by Burridge et al [forthcoming] extend that of Petty [1970] by incorporating capillary action and a statistical representation of the parameters of the cell geometry of the wood, including lumen area and cell length, and their variation through the ring structure. The methods in the present study provide those geometrical parameters, and their statistical distributions at locations across the ring structure of the wood.…”

Section: Background and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The model by Petty [1970] is based on the physical microstructure of the wood. The set of models by Burridge et al [forthcoming] extend that of Petty [1970] by incorporating capillary action and a statistical representation of the parameters of the cell geometry of the wood, including lumen area and cell length, and their variation through the ring structure.…”

Section: Background and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell geometry across the ring structure of Sitka spruce

Reynolds

Burridge

Johnston

et al. 2018

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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For wood to be used to its full potential as an engineering material, it is necessary to quantify links between its cell geometry and the properties it exhibits at bulk scale. Doing so will make it possible to predict timber properties crucial to engineering, such as mechanical strength and stiffness, and the resistance to fluid flow, and to inform strategies to improve those properties as required, as well as to measure the effects of interventions such as genetic manipulation and chemical modification. Strength, stiffness and permeability of timber all derive from the geometry of its cells, and yet current practice is to predict them based on properties, such as bulk density, that do not directly describe the cell structure. This work explores links between micro-computed tomography data for structuralsize pieces of wood, which show the variation of porosity across the wood's ring structure, and high-resolution tomography showing the geometry of the cells, from which we measure cell length, lumen area, porosity, cell wall thickness and the number density of cells. High-resolution scans, while informative, are time-consuming and expensive to run on a large number of samples at the scale of building components. By scanning the same volume of timber at both low and high resolutions (high-resolution scans over a near-continuous volume of timber of approximately 20mm 3 at 15µm3 per voxel), we are able to demonstrate correlations between the measurements at the two different resolutions, reveal the physical basis for these correlations, and demonstrate that the data from the low-resolution scan can be used to estimate the variation in (small-scale) cell geometry throughout a structural-size piece of wood.

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Permeability and structure of the wood of Sitka spruce

Cited by 49 publications

References 5 publications

Noninvasive Measurement of Vulnerability to Drought-Induced Embolism by X-Ray Microtomography

Noninvasive Measurement of Vulnerability to Drought-Induced Embolism by X-Ray Microtomography

Resistance to water flow in xylem of Picea abies (L.) Karst. trees grown under contrasting light conditions

Cell geometry across the ring structure of Sitka spruce

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