We are interested in the water transport properties of entire plants - leaves, branches, roots, trunks. Sometimes this means sampling destructively, but hey, it's for science.
The vast majority of our understanding of plant hydraulics is based on studies of terminal branches. This offers us a very limited understanding of how water moves through whole plants and how drought might affect whole plants.
The above image shows one way of measuring embolism (air bubble formation) in leaf xylem - this method is acoustic emission (super-sensitive microphones). Below is a set of tropical liana stems being prepared for hydraulic measurements
The vast majority of our understanding of plant hydraulics is based on studies of terminal branches. This offers us a very limited understanding of how water moves through whole plants and how drought might affect whole plants.
The above image shows one way of measuring embolism (air bubble formation) in leaf xylem - this method is acoustic emission (super-sensitive microphones). Below is a set of tropical liana stems being prepared for hydraulic measurements
