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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Disentangling the net: concomitant xylem and over-bark size measurements reveal the phloem-generated turgor signal behind daytime stem swelling in the mangrove Avicennia marina

Alicia Donnellan Barraclough https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3385-3416 A D , Roman Zweifel B , Jarrod Cusens A C and Sebastian Leuzinger A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Institute of Applied Ecology New Zealand, Auckland University of Technology, 34 St Paul Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.

B Forest Dynamics, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland.

C Wildland Consultants Ltd, 12 Nixon Street, Grey Lynn, Auckland 1021, New Zealand.

D Corresponding author. Email: adonnell@aut.ac.nz

Functional Plant Biology 46(5) 393-406 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP18155
Submitted: 14 June 2018  Accepted: 25 December 2018   Published: 25 February 2019

Abstract

Daytime stem shrinking is a well recorded phenomenon: trees dip into their internal water stores to meet imbalances between water supply and demand. Uncertainty surrounds the mechanisms behind the unusual pattern of daytime stem swelling, presented by species like the mangrove Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh., and which is thought to originate in the osmotic adjustment of storage tissues. We performed on-xylem radius change (XRC) and whole-stem radius change (SRC) measurements with point dendrometers to ascertain if the swelling of the stem is due to an increase in the thickness of the phloem and inner-bark (BRC). We measured leaf water potential (ψleaf), sap flow, leaf turgor and microclimate to understand the coupling between BRC and transpiration-driven changes in XRC. Our results present direct evidence of the type of mechanism responsible for daytime stem swelling. Inner-bark thickness increase concurrent with XRC decrease, sap-flow increase and leaf turgor loss, reveals a phloem-generated turgor signal behind daytime stem swelling of tree stems. On-xylem measurements were highly heterogeneous due to the variability in the three dimensional fish-net wood structure of the stem of A. marina. As daytime decreases in XRC were compensated by BRC and correlated with conditions of high water demand, we suggest a potential role of daytime stem swelling in the hydraulic safety of A. marina.

Additional keywords: daytime stem swelling, mangroves, osmotic adjustment, phloem, stem radius change, turgor, xylem.


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