Xylem hydraulic physiology: the functional backbone of terrestrial plant productivity.

By Tim J. Brodribb. 2009

295 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Land plants are completely dependent on a passive system of water transport for their survival. The great bulk of the xylem tissue is non-living and consequently has no short term capacity to acclimate or adjust to changes in hydraulic demand. Yet there exists an extraordinary degree of coordination between the hydraulic and photosynthetic systems of plants that defies developmental explanation. The connection between hydraulic capacity and photosynthetic assimilation arises as a product of the shared stomatal pathway for water and CO 2 exchange in the leaf. A combination of optimization in both water use and structural xylem investment has led to a situation in vascular plants where the form and function of all individuals is moulded by the link between hydraulic and photosynthetic systems. Unlike competing models of hormonal control of gas exchange, hydraulic limitation of productivity under optimal and drought conditions accounts for much of the observed variation in plant gas exchange in natural systems. The plant water transport system places a hard physical limit to plant productivity and survival. Identifying the developmental control of key xylem traits will yield the potential for achieving new performance capabilities in plants.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bb804c44f47cc79ad2eb0f6649039689fe28c34a

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Citations in the corpus

Angiosperms Helped Put the Rain in the Rainforests: The Impact of Plant Physiological Evolution on Tropical Biodiversity1 (2010, background): “Thus, photosynthetic carbon assimilation necessarily involves water loss, and a plant’s ability to conduct photosynthesis is dependent on its ability to transport water to the stomata for transpirational loss (Davidoff & Hanks, 1989; Brodribb, 2009).”
Rootstock control of scion response to water stress in grapevine (2013, methodology): “Stomatal conductance In order to exclude the root effect and to concentrate on the characteristics induced by the grafted cultivar, this measurement was conducted on detached leaves, treated as self-contained functional units, as described by Brodribb (2009).”
Biological constraints on water transport in the soil–plant–atmosphere system (2013, background): “, [35,73].”
Aquaporins: Highly Regulated Channels Controlling Plant Water Relations1 (2014, background): “Recent reviews examine the xylem and hydraulic network in leaves related to coordination between hydraulic and photosynthetic systems of plants (Brodribb, 2009; Nardini et al., 2005; Flexas et al., 2013; Sack and Scoffoni, 2013).”
Morpho-Anatomical Traits for Plant Adaptation to Drought (2012, background): “The importance of the strict relationship between structure and function in plants has been recently recalled, considering that major metabolic and physiological processes are ultimately regulated by the physics of the plant’s structure (Brodribb 2009).”
Measurements of stem xylem hydraulic conductivity in the laboratory and field (2012, background): “…with regions of uptake, exchange and reproduction (e.g. roots, leaves, flowers and fruit), papers should be sought that deal specifically with these topics (e.g. Zwieniecki & Boersma 1997; Nardini, Tyree & Salleo 2001; Sack et al. 2002; Choat et al. 2009; Feild, Chat- elet & Brodribb 2009).”
Will a 385 million year‐struggle for light become a struggle for water and for carbon? – How trees may cope with more frequent climate change‐type drought events (2011, background): “Unfortunately, this diffusive pathway also allows water to diffuse out of the leaf, so the resulting water loss must be continuously replaced with water extracted from the soil (Brodribb, 2009).”