Outside-Xylem Vulnerability, Not Xylem Embolism, Controls Leaf Hydraulic Decline during Dehydration

2017/01/03 by Christine Scoffoni, Caetano Albuquerque, Craig R. Brodersen +6 · 277 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Biology #Botany #Dehydration #Ecology #Environmental science #Horticulture #Hydraulic conductivity #Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics #Plant responses to water stress #Soil science #Soil water #Tree-ring climate responses #Turgor pressure #Water flow #Water transport #Xylem

paper · pdf · doi:10.1104/pp.16.01643

published in PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 173(2), 1197-1210 (Oxford University Press)

openalex publication_date 2017/01/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

decline across the range of dehydration from mild water stress to beyond turgor loss point. Spatially explicit modeling of leaf water transport pointed to a role for reduced membrane conductivity consistent with published data for cells and tissues. Plant-scale modeling suggested that outside-xylem hydraulic vulnerability can protect the xylem from tensions that would induce embolism and disruption of water transport under mild to moderate soil and atmospheric droughts. These findings pinpoint outside-xylem tissues as a central locus for the control of leaf and plant water transport during progressive drought.

Citations

• How Does Leaf Anatomy Influence Water Transport outside the Xylem?
• Xylem Cavitation in the Leaf of Prunus laurocerasusand Its Impact on Leaf Hydraulics
• Aquaporins in Plants

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