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WATER TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF VINE AND TREE STEMS IN A TROPICAL DECIDUOUS FOREST
Author(s) -
Gartner Barbara L.,
Bullock Stephen H.,
Mooney Harold A.,
Brown V. By,
Whitbeck Julie L.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1990.tb14464.x
Subject(s) - vine , deciduous , biology , dry season , hydraulic conductivity , wet season , botany , tropics , tropical forest , horticulture , tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests , ecology , soil water
Excised stem segments of vines had higher specific hydraulic conductivities (flow rate per pressure gradient per stem transverse area) than did trees during the dry season in a deciduous forest in Jalisco, México. Vine species averaged from 2.7 to 203 10 ‐3 m 2 MPa ‐1 s ‐1 and tree species from 0.8 to 5.1 10 ‐3 m 2 MPa ‐1 s ‐1 . Only three of the 20 species retain their leaves during part or all of the dry season, and these included the vine and the tree with the lowest conductivities within their growth forms. An index of the mean diameter of the six widest vessels per sample was positively and significantly correlated with specific conductivity for the vines but not the trees. Stem density (g cm ‐3 , dry weight/wet volume) was not correlated with either specific conductivity or vessel diameter index for vines or trees.