Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Bagging: a cheaper, faster, non-destructive transpiration water sampling method for tracer studies

  • Methods Paper
  • Published:
Plant and Soil Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Stable isotope tracer experiments provide a powerful tool for understanding plant root distributions, resource uptake, niche partitioning and water cycling. Plant water is typically collected from pre-transpiring tissues to avoid the effects of evaporative isotope enrichment at the leaf surface, but extracting water from these plant samples is difficult and expensive. The purpose of this study was to test a simple transpiration bagging approach for measuring hydrologic tracer uptake.

Methods

Sampling was performed as part of a depth-specific tracer experiment in which 2H2O was injected to target depths (5, 15, 30, 60, or 150 cm) in different replicated plots. One day following injections, leaves from three species were sealed in bags for 16 h and transpired water was collected. Water from pre-transpiring stem tissue was then collected in a separate set of samples and extracted using cryogenic distillation.

Results

Deuterium concentrations from the two techniques were correlated (R2 = 0.84) and both approaches produced similar descriptions of vertical root distributions for three dominant plant species. 18O concentrations from the two techniques were not correlated.

Conclusion

Bagging transpired water produced similar estimates of 2H tracer uptake as the standard sampling technique. Bagging requires no destructive sampling, specialized laboratory equipment, training or consumables and is expected to halve sampling costs. While effective in this tracer experiment, bagging may be not be effective in natural abundance experiments, or tracer experiments with very small plants or small transpiration rates (i.e., early-season or arid sites).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Upon acceptance, all data associated with this manuscript will be stored in a publicly available database, such as the USU Digital commons, and given a DOI.

References

  • Asbjornsen H, Goldsmith GR, Alvarado-Barrientos MS, Rebel K, Van Osch FP, Rietkerk M, Chen J, Gotsch S, Tobon C, Geissert DR, Gomez-Tagle A (2011) Ecohydrological advances and applications in plant–water relations research: a review. J Plant Ecol 4:3–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bakhshandeh S, Kertesz MA, Corneo PE, Dijkstra FA (2016) Dual-labeling with 15N and H218O to investigate water and N uptake of wheat under different water regimes. Plant Soil 408:429–441. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-2944-8

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barbeta A, Ogée J and Peñuelas J (2018) Stable-isotope techniques to investigate sources of plant water. In Adv plant Ecophys tech (pp 439-456) springer, Cham

  • Barbeta A, Gimeno TE, Clavé L, Fréjaville B, Jones SP, Delvigne C, Wingate L, Ogée J (2020) An explanation for the isotopic offset between soil and stem water in a temperate tree species. New Phytol 227:766–779. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16564

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berry RS, Kulmatiski A (2017) A savanna response to precipitation intensity. PLoS One 12:1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journalpone0175402

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beyer M, Koeniger P, Gaj M, Hamutoko JT, Wanke H, Himmelsbach T (2016) A deuterium-based labeling technique for the investigation of rooting depths, water uptake dynamics and unsaturated zone water transport in semiarid environments. J Hydrol 533:627–643

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beyer M, Kühnhammer K, Dubbert M (2020) In situ measurements of soil and plant water isotopes: a review of approaches, practical considerations and a vision for the future. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 24:4413–4440

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bishop K, Dambrine E (1995) Localization of tree water uptake in Scots pine and Norway spruce with hydroiogical tracers. Can J For Res 25:286–297

  • Cernusak LA, Barbour MM, Arndt SK, Cheesman AW, English NB, Feild TS, Helliker BR, Holloway-Phillips MM, Holtum JA, Kahmen A, McInerney FA (2016) Stable isotopes in leaf water of terrestrial plants. Plant Cell Environ 39:1087–1102

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chen Y, Helliker BR, Tang X, Li F, Zhou Y, Song X (2020) Stem water cryogenic extraction biases estimation in deuterium isotope composition of plant source water. P Natl Acad Sci USA 117:33345–33350

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper LE, DeNiro MJ (1989) Covariance of oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions in plant water, species effects. Ecology 70:1619–1628

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cui J, Tian L (2020) Temperature issues in online extraction of water from plant and soil for stable isotope analysis. Rapid Comm Mass Spec 34:8750

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craig H (1961) Isotopic variations in meteoric waters. Science 133:1702–1703. https://doi.org/10.1126/science13334651702

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • da SL Sternberg L, Bucci S, Franco A, Goldstein G, Hoffman WA, Meinzer FC, Moreira MZ, Scholz F (2005) Long range lateral root activity by neotropical savanna trees. Plant and Soil 270:169–178

  • Dawson TE, Ehleringer JR (1993) Isotopic enrichment of water in the “woody” tissues of plants: implications for plant water source, water uptake, and other studies which use the stable isotopic composition of cellulose. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 57:3487–3492

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dongmann G, Nürnberg HW, Förstel H, Wagener K (1974) On the enrichment of H218O in the leaves of transpiring plants. Rad Environm Biophys 11:41–52

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dubbert M, Werner C (2019) Water fluxes mediated by vegetation: emerging isotopic insights at the soil and atmosphere interfaces. New Phytol 221:1754–1763

  • Dubbert M, Cuntz M, Piayda A, Werner C (2014) Oxygen isotope signatures of transpired water vapor: the role of isotopic non-steady-state transpiration under natural conditions. New Phytol 203:1242–1252

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ehleringer JR, Dawson TE (1992) Water uptake by plants: perspectives from stable isotope composition. Plant Cell Environ 15:1073–1082

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer BMC, Frentress J, Manzoni S, Cousins S, Hugelius G, Greger M, Smittenberg RH, Lyon SW (2019) Mojito, anyone? An exploration of low-tech plant water extraction methods for isotopic analysis using locally-sourced materials. Front Earth Sci 7:150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grant GE, Dietrich WE (2017) The frontier beneath our feet. Water Resour Res 53:2605–2609. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR020835

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holdo RM (2013) Revisiting the two-layer hypothesis: coexistence of alternative functional rooting strategies in savannas. PLoS One. https://doi.org/10.1371/journalpone0069625

  • Kahmen A, Schefuß E, Sachse D (2013) Leaf water deuterium enrichment shapes leaf wax n-alkane δD values of angiosperm plants I: Experimental evidence and mechanistic insights. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 111:39–49

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kübert A, Paulus S, Dahlmann A, Werner C, Rothfuss Y, Orlowski N, Dubbert M (2020) Water stable isotopes in ecohydrological field research: comparison between in situ and destructive monitoring methods to determine soil water isotopic signatures. Frontier Plant Sci 11:387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kühnhammer K, Kübert A, Brüggemann N, Deseano Diaz P, van Dusschoten D, Javaux M, Merz S, Vereecken H, Dubbert M, Rothfuss Y (2020) Investigating the root plasticity response of Centaurea jacea to soil water availability changes from isotopic analysis. New Phytol 226:98–110

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kulmatiski A, Adler PB and Foley KM (2020) Hydrologic niches explain species coexistence and abundance in a shrub–steppe system. J Ecol doi: 101111/1365–274513324

  • Kulmatiski A, Adler PB, Stark JM, Tredennick AT (2017) Water and nitrogen uptake are better associated with resource availability than root biomass. Ecosphere 8:1–10. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs21738

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kulmatiski A, Beard KH (2013) Root niche partitioning among grasses, saplings, and trees measured using a tracer technique. Oecologia 171:25–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2390-0

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kulmatiski A, Beard KH, Verweij RJT, February EC (2010) A depth-controlled tracer technique measures vertical, horizontal and temporal patterns of water use by trees and grasses in a subtropical savanna. New Phytol 188:199–209. https://doi.org/10.1111/j1469-8137201003338x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mamolos AP, Elisseou GK, Veresoglou DS (1995) Depth of root activity of coexisting grassland species in relation to N and P additions, measured using nonradioactive tracers. J Ecol 83:643–652

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzacavallo MG, Kulmatiski A (2015) Modelling water uptake provides a new perspective on grass and tree coexistence. Plos One e0144300. https://doi.org/10.1371/journalpone0144300

  • Menchaca LB, Smith BM, Connolly J, Conrad M, Emmett B (2007) A method to determine plant water source using transpired water. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci Dis 4:863–880

    Google Scholar 

  • Millar C, Pratt D, Schneider DJ, McDonnell JJ (2018) A comparison of extraction systems for plant water stable isotope analysis. Rapid Commun mass Spectrom 32:1031–1044. https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm8136

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Newberry SL, Nelson DB, Kahmen A (2017) Cryogenic vacuum artifacts do not affect plant water-uptake studies using stable isotope analysis. Ecohydrology 10:1892

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogle K, Reynolds JF (2004) Plant responses to precipitation in desert ecosystems: integrating functional types, pulses, thresholds, and delays. Oecologia 141:282–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-004-1507-5

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Orellana F, Verma P, Loheide SP and Daly E (2012) Monitoring and modeling water-vegetation interactions in groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Rev Geophys 50(3)

  • Ownbey GB (1991) Vascular plants of Minnesota: a checklist and atlas U of Minnesota press

  • R Core Research Team (2004) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

  • Rothfuss Y, Javaux M (2017) Reviews and syntheses: isotopic approaches to quantify root water uptake: a review and comparison of methods. Biogeosci 14:2199–2224. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2199-2017

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Roden JS, Ehleringer JR (1999) Observations of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in leaf water confirm the Craig-Gordon model under wide-ranging environmental conditions. Plant Phys 120:1165–1174

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schymanski SJ, Sivapalan M, Roderick ML, Beringer J, Hutley LB (2008) An optimality-based model of the coupled soil moisture and root dynamics. Hydrol Earth Sys Sci 12:913–932. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-12-913-2008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silvertown J, Araya Y, Gowing D (2015) Hydrological niches in terrestrial plant communities: a review. J Ecol 103:93–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-274512332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smithwick EAH, Lucash MS, McCormack ML, Sivandran G (2014) Improving the representation of roots in terrestrial models. Ecol Model 291:193–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/jecolmodel201407023

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg LSL, Moreira MZ, Nepstad DC (2002) Uptake of water by lateral roots of small trees in an Amazonian tropical forest. Plant Soil 238:151–158

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • van der Heijden G, Dambrine E, Pollier B, Zeller B, Ranger J, Legout A (2015) Mg and Ca uptake by roots in relation to depth and allocation to aboveground tissues: results from an isotopic labeling study in a beech forest on base-poor soil. Biogeochem 122:375–393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-014-0047-2

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vendramini PF, Sternberg LDS (2007) A faster plant stem-water extraction method. Rapid Comm Mass Spec 21:164–168

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Volkmann TH, Haberer K, Gessler A, Weiler M (2016) High-resolution isotope measurements resolve rapid ecohydrological dynamics at the soil–plant interface. New Phytol 210:839–849

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walker BH, Noy-Meir I (1982) Aspects of the stability and resilience of savanna ecosystems In: Huntley BJ, Walker BH, editors Ecology of tropical savannas Berlin: Springer; 556–590

  • Wang L, Good SP, Caylor KK, Cernusak LA (2012) Direct quantification of leaf transpiration isotopic composition. Agri Forest Meteor 154:127–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward D, Wiegand K, Getzin S (2013) Walter’s two-layer hypothesis revisited: Back to the roots. Oecologia 172:617–630. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2538-y

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Warren CP, Kulmatiski A, Beard KH (2015) A combined tracer/evapotranspiration model approach estimates plant water uptake in native and non-native shrub-steppe communities. J arid environ 121:67–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/jjaridenv201506001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West AG, Goldsmith GR, Brooks PD, Dawson TE (2010) Discrepancies between isotope ratio infrared spectroscopy and isotope ratio mass spectrometry for the stable isotope analysis of plant and soil waters. Rapid Comm Mass Spec 24:1948–1954

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wood SN (2004) Stable and efficient multiple smoothing parameter estimation for generalized additive models. J Amer Stat Ass 99:673–686. https://doi.org/10.1198/016214504000000980

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao L, Wang L, Cernusak LA, Liu X, Xiao H, Zhou M, Zhang S (2016) Significant difference in hydrogen isotope composition between xylem and tissue water in Populus euphratica. Plant Cell Environ 39:1848–1857

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Thanks to C. Carlisle, C. Pint, J. Allenbrand, and M. Holdrege for assistance with field work. K. Foley, S. Rawlings, K. Slabaugh, A. Yamaguchi, A. Zlevor, and A. Brookes assisted with sample preparation. This work was supported by grants from the US National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research Program (LTER) including DEB-0620652 and DEB-1234162. Further support was provided by the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve and the University of Minnesota. This research was also supported by the Utah Experiment Station and approved as journal paper number 9403.

Funding

Research was supported by a grant from NSF DEB, award #1354129. This research was also supported by the Utah Experiment Station and approved as journal paper number 9403.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Andrew Kulmatiski & Leslie E. Forero

Authors
  1. Andrew Kulmatiski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Leslie E. Forero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

AK and LEF conceived of and executed the research and analyzed and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew Kulmatiski.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest or competing interests to declare.

Ethics approval

There were no ethics approvals related to this research.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Both authors consent publication of this manuscript.

Code availability

No unique code is associated with this manuscript.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Rafael S. Oliveira.

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kulmatiski, A., Forero, L.E. Bagging: a cheaper, faster, non-destructive transpiration water sampling method for tracer studies. Plant Soil 462, 603–611 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04844-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04844-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation