Wood anatomy and wood density in shrubs: Responses to varying aridity along transcontinental transects

Martínez‐Cabrera, Hugo I.; Jones, Cynthia S.; Espino, Susana; Schenk, H. Jochen

doi:10.3732/ajb.0800237

Cited by 195 publications

(243 citation statements)

References 76 publications

(103 reference statements)

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“…The low amount of fiber increases the flexibility of the stem (Carlquist 1985;Brandes & Barros 2008;Carlquist 2012) and decreases the risk of mechanical damage to the xylem (Carlquist 2012). On the other hand, the significant amount of parenchyma can increase the capacity to store water in the stem (Martínez-Cabrera et al 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydraulic architecture of lianas in a semiarid climate: efficiency or safety?

et al. 2015

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Xylem anatomical traits can provide insights regarding the mechanisms affecting the distribution of vascular plants across environmental gradients. In this study, we aimed to investigate the hypothesis that lianas occurring in semiarid environments have characteristics that maximize the xylem resistance to tension-induced cavitation along the root--stem-branch continuum. To gather information regarding the hydraulic architecture of the lianas, we analyzed several anatomical traits of wood: cross-sectional area occupied by the parenchyma (A P ), fibers (A F ), and vessels (A V ); average vessel diameter (d); wood density (WD); pit diameter in the vessel wall (d pit ); pit density (N pit ), and potential hydraulic conductivity (Kp) in branches, stems, and roots of three congeneric species of lianas that occur in two vegetation types of the semiarid regions of Brazil. We found that lianas in these semiarid environments possess a number of the following xylem traits that may allow resistance to tension-induced cavitation:1) lower vessel diameter, lower Kp, and higher hydraulic safety in roots and branches; 2) Dimorphic vessels, ensuring both hydraulic efficiency and safety; and 3) small diameter of pits (potentially associated with a decrease in the membrane area of the vessel pits). This suite of traits may provide insight into mechanisms allowing lianas to occur in semiarid environments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydraulic architecture of lianas in a semiarid climate: efficiency or safety?

et al. 2015

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“…Wood density plays a key role in ecological strategies and life history variation in woody plants, but very little is known about its anatomical basis in shrubs [18]. They quantified the relationships between wood density, anatomy, and climate in 61 shrub species from eight field sites along latitudinal belts between 31 and 35 in North and South America.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wood Density of Ten Native Trees and Shrubs and Its Possible Relation with a Few Wood Chemical Compositions

Maiti¹,

Rodríguez²,

Kumari³

2016

AJPS

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The present study was undertaken in Forest Science Faculty, Universidad de Nuevo Leon, Mexico on variability of Wood density and its possible relation to few wood chemical composition and wood fiber cell structure anatomy. The results reveal that among 10 specie studied, there exist a large variation in wood density (0.51 to 1.09), and few wood chemical composition such % carbón (37.14 to 44.07), nitrogen (9.18 to 19.22), sulphur (31.45 to 33/82), lignin (15/28 to 24.35), hemicellulose (19.94 to 27.36%), and % cellulose (33.69 to 45.92). In general, though there was no clear relationship between wood density and other chemical composition of wood. It was observed that the species having moderate to high wood density contained >40% carbón, >30% sulphur and >40% cellulose and more or less 20% lignin. It seems that carbón, sulphur, cellulose and lignin content contribute to greater density. The wood fiber cell with wall lignification seems to be related to higher wood density.

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“…These results point to variation in tissue composition, rather than to relative amounts of vessel, parenchyma and fibre, as being the primary determinants of wood density. Supporting this idea, wood density has been related to fibre wall to lumen ratios, percentage allocation to fibre wall and fibre lumen size (Jacobsen et al, 2007;Martínez-Cabrera et al, 2009).…”

Section: ) Depending On Selective Pressures Evolution May 348 Fmentioning

confidence: 95%