Hi Tamir,
Great question! But no easy answer... MRI and microCT are excellent (yet expensive) choices to really see what is going on in intact plants.
Most other methods could provide reliable results if you are aware of the possible artifacts. If you perform air injection (Ennajeh et al., 2011), centrifuge (Pivovaroff et al., 2016) or classic bench dehydration (Wheeler et al., 2013) while following the recommendations from these authors you should be able evaluate the degree of embolism. If you are using a new species that was not tested before it is recommended to combine different methods. Most importantly, if you get very strange results (cavitation with no tension, refilling under high tension or even refilling two times a day:)) you should take them with a grain of salt and consider possible artifacts.
Hi Tamir,
Great question! But no easy answer... MRI and microCT are excellent (yet expensive) choices to really see what is going on in intact plants.
Most other methods could provide reliable results if you are aware of the possible artifacts. If you perform air injection (Ennajeh et al., 2011), centrifuge (Pivovaroff et al., 2016) or classic bench dehydration (Wheeler et al., 2013) while following the recommendations from these authors you should be able evaluate the degree of embolism. If you are using a new species that was not tested before it is recommended to combine different methods. Most importantly, if you get very strange results (cavitation with no tension, refilling under high tension or even refilling two times a day:)) you should take them with a grain of salt and consider possible artifacts.
Hi Tamir,
I suggest you read few papers about embolism measurments especially :
http://herve.cochard.free.fr/pdf/Cochard-Delzon-Badel-2015.pdf
http://herve.cochard.free.fr/pdf/Cochard-et-al-JXB-2013.pdf
X-ray is a reference method but as said Uri, others methods work can be used according to the species. Actually, if you wish to use X-ray microtomography, we can discuss the possibility to use our device. You can find information here:
https://www6.ara.inra.fr/piaf_eng/Methods/X-ray-microtomography
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4233727/ is for ltrasonic emissions in vivo, but I wonder if the actual role of tree survival to drought is depending on it. A cluster of suthors seems to believe it. Of course gas exchange and micrmets should be availible on site.
you could use pressure-based method. See this device:
http://www.pmsinstrument.com/products/digital-cavitation-chamber-instrument
Best
The thing with metastable systems is that any observation may disturb the whole thing.
Maybe Schrödinger’s cat died twice a day, who knows?
Potable meter
water conductance under pressure where water drops are recorded on a sheet
Hi, Tamir, the method which I used most was dehydration method, as for the others, I have no experience on them, so I can't give you the answer. If you get a good answer someday, please tell me. Thank you very much !
Hi Tamir,
Yes it is a very important question everyone should ask before attempting to measure xylem embolism in plants.
I agree with what Uri and Eric said above. I also encourage you to use the new optical method of Tim Brodribb, Bienaime & Marmottant (PNAS 2016). It is very easy to implement, cost very little and works great with most leaves. Tim obtained also primising results with roots and stems. See also the video Uri and Pono uploaded on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-X8mmPFek0
best !
Hervé
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