Embolism resistance is a critically important trait for evaluating the ability of plants to survive and recover from drought periods and predicting future drought-induced forest decline (Choat et al., 2012). However, recent publications have provided evidence that some measurement techniques used to evaluate the hydraulic function and vulnerability to cavitation of plant organs may be prone to artifacts (Sperry et al., 2012; Cochard et al., 2013; Torres-Ruiz et al., 2014; Trifilò et al., 2014). The discovery of these artifacts has raised questions regarding the reliability of some previously published plant hydraulics data, in particular data relating to the refilling of embolized xylem conduits while the xylem is under tension. In this context, Wheeler et al. (2013) reported that sampling plant organs by cutting while the xylem is under tension can induce artificial increases in the degree of embolism at the moment of sample excision, even when cuts are made under water. The methodology applied by Wheeler et al. (2013), however, did not allow the visualization of embolized or functional vessels, and native embolism levels could not be determined in intact plants before any cutting was done.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	xylem, drought, embolism
Research Division:	Biological Sciences
Research Group:	Plant Biology
Research Field:	Plant Physiology
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding Knowledge in the Environmental Sciences
Author:	Brodribb, TJ (Dr Tim Brodribb)
ID Code:	100834
Year Published:	2015
Funding Support:	Australian Research Council (DP120101686)
Web of Science® Times Cited:	36
Deposited By:	Plant Science
Deposited On:	2015-06-01
Last Modified:	2016-05-27
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