The vulnerability to drought-induced embolism-conduit diameter link: breaching the anatomy-physiology divide

What is it about?

There is a great deal of evidence that wider water-conducting conduits in plants are more vulnerable to breakage of the conductive stream (embolism) induced by drought. However, many, maybe most, wood physiologists think that there is no vulnerability-diameter link. But the most important patterns of wood anatomical variation across the entire world are best explained by postulating a link. By rejecting the link, xylem physiologists not only leave the main patterns of wood variation worldwide unexplained and leave the field with little direction for further research, but they also leave society without key tools for combatting forest mortality due to climate change. Good science therefore requires that the link be explained, via close collaboration between physiologists and anatomists.

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