Plastic Response of Tracheids in Pinus pinaster in a Water-Limited Environment: Adjusting Lumen Size instead of Wall Thickness

The formation of wood results from cambial activity and its anatomical properties reflect the variability of environmental conditions during the growing season. Recently, it was found that wood density variations in conifers growing under cold-limited environment result from the adjustment of cell w...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Carvalho, Ana, Nabais, Cristina, Vieira, Joana, Rossi, Sergio, Campelo, Filipe
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4549277/

id	pubmed-4549277
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-45492772015-09-01 Plastic Response of Tracheids in Pinus pinaster in a Water-Limited Environment: Adjusting Lumen Size instead of Wall Thickness Carvalho, Ana Nabais, Cristina Vieira, Joana Rossi, Sergio Campelo, Filipe Research Article The formation of wood results from cambial activity and its anatomical properties reflect the variability of environmental conditions during the growing season. Recently, it was found that wood density variations in conifers growing under cold-limited environment result from the adjustment of cell wall thickness (CWT) to temperature. Additionally, it is known that intra-annual density fluctuations (IADFs) are formed in response to precipitation after the summer drought. Although IADFs are frequent in Mediterranean conifers no study has yet been conducted to determine if these structures result from the adjustment of lumen diameter (LD) or CWT to soil water availability. Our main objective is to investigate the intra-ring variation of wood anatomical features (LD and CWT) in Pinus pinaster Ait. growing under a water-limited environment. We compared the tracheidograms of LD and CWT for the years 2010–2013 in P. pinaster growing in the west coast of Portugal. Our results suggest a close association between LD and soil moisture content along the growing season, reinforcing the role of water availability in determining tracheid size. Compared with CWT, LD showed a higher intra- and inter-annual variability suggesting its strong adjustment value to variations in water availability. The formation of a latewood IADF appears to be predisposed by higher rates of cell production in spring and triggered by early autumn precipitation. Our findings reinforce the crucial role of water availability on cambial activity and wood formation in Mediterranean conifers, and emphasize the high plasticity of wood anatomical features under Mediterranean climate. Public Library of Science 2015-08-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4549277/ /pubmed/26305893 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136305 Text en © 2015 Carvalho et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Carvalho, Ana Nabais, Cristina Vieira, Joana Rossi, Sergio Campelo, Filipe
spellingShingle	Carvalho, Ana Nabais, Cristina Vieira, Joana Rossi, Sergio Campelo, Filipe Plastic Response of Tracheids in Pinus pinaster in a Water-Limited Environment: Adjusting Lumen Size instead of Wall Thickness
author_facet	Carvalho, Ana Nabais, Cristina Vieira, Joana Rossi, Sergio Campelo, Filipe
author_sort	Carvalho, Ana
title	Plastic Response of Tracheids in Pinus pinaster in a Water-Limited Environment: Adjusting Lumen Size instead of Wall Thickness
title_short	Plastic Response of Tracheids in Pinus pinaster in a Water-Limited Environment: Adjusting Lumen Size instead of Wall Thickness
title_full	Plastic Response of Tracheids in Pinus pinaster in a Water-Limited Environment: Adjusting Lumen Size instead of Wall Thickness
title_fullStr	Plastic Response of Tracheids in Pinus pinaster in a Water-Limited Environment: Adjusting Lumen Size instead of Wall Thickness
title_full_unstemmed	Plastic Response of Tracheids in Pinus pinaster in a Water-Limited Environment: Adjusting Lumen Size instead of Wall Thickness
title_sort	plastic response of tracheids in pinus pinaster in a water-limited environment: adjusting lumen size instead of wall thickness
description	The formation of wood results from cambial activity and its anatomical properties reflect the variability of environmental conditions during the growing season. Recently, it was found that wood density variations in conifers growing under cold-limited environment result from the adjustment of cell wall thickness (CWT) to temperature. Additionally, it is known that intra-annual density fluctuations (IADFs) are formed in response to precipitation after the summer drought. Although IADFs are frequent in Mediterranean conifers no study has yet been conducted to determine if these structures result from the adjustment of lumen diameter (LD) or CWT to soil water availability. Our main objective is to investigate the intra-ring variation of wood anatomical features (LD and CWT) in Pinus pinaster Ait. growing under a water-limited environment. We compared the tracheidograms of LD and CWT for the years 2010–2013 in P. pinaster growing in the west coast of Portugal. Our results suggest a close association between LD and soil moisture content along the growing season, reinforcing the role of water availability in determining tracheid size. Compared with CWT, LD showed a higher intra- and inter-annual variability suggesting its strong adjustment value to variations in water availability. The formation of a latewood IADF appears to be predisposed by higher rates of cell production in spring and triggered by early autumn precipitation. Our findings reinforce the crucial role of water availability on cambial activity and wood formation in Mediterranean conifers, and emphasize the high plasticity of wood anatomical features under Mediterranean climate.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4549277/
_version_	1613468983794597888

Plastic Response of Tracheids in Pinus pinaster in a Water-Limited Environment: Adjusting Lumen Size instead of Wall Thickness

Similar Items