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Oxygen Transport in the Sapwood of Trees

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Waterlogging Signalling and Tolerance in Plants

Abstract

Gas composition inside large woody stems differs significantly from that of the ambient atmosphere because of cellular respiration in the xylem, phloem and cambium. Oxygen is required for oxidative respiration, which under most conditions provides the energy for plant cells. The gaseous environment within the woody stems is enriched in CO2 and depleted in O2 as a result of the net effects of respiration, exchange with the atmosphere via diffusion through bark, and exchange with the transpiration stream through the dissolution of gases. Oxygen concentration normally declines from the cambium toward the heartwood boundary during stem respiration, but no values below 3–5% gaseous mole fraction (corresponding to approximately 15–25% of air O2 content) were ever measured. It is clear that the gas diffusivity of wood is necessary to supply live sapwood with oxygen and that, given the strong effect of water content on diffusion coefficient, not enough oxygen would diffuse through fully saturated wood, illustrating that the xylem cell walls present a major barrier to gas diffusion. This supports the hypothesis that heartwood formation can be triggered by low oxygen concentrations, or even anoxia, in the innermost sapwood, as colored heartwood seems to be produced only in the presence of oxygen.

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Abbreviations

D :

Diffusion coefficient (diffusivity)

K m :

Michaelis constant

LVDT:

Linear variable differential transformers

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dpt. Plant, Soil and Environmental Science, University of Florence, viale delle Idee 30, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019, Italy

    Sergio Mugnai & Stefano Mancuso

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  1. Sergio Mugnai
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  2. Stefano Mancuso
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Correspondence to Stefano Mancuso .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipto. Ortoflorofrutticoltura, Università Firenze, Viale delle Idee 30, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019, Italy

    Stefano Mancuso

  2. School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

    Sergey Shabala

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Mugnai, S., Mancuso, S. (2010). Oxygen Transport in the Sapwood of Trees. In: Mancuso, S., Shabala, S. (eds) Waterlogging Signalling and Tolerance in Plants. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10305-6_4

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