Whole‐tree water transport scales with sapwood capacitance in tropical forest canopy trees

Abstract

The present study examines the manner in which several whole‐tree water transport properties scale with species‐specific variation in sapwood water storage capacity. The hypothesis that constraints on relationships between sapwood capacitance and other water relations characteristics lead to predictable scaling relationships between intrinsic capacitance and whole‐tree behaviour was investigated. Samples of sapwood from four tropical forest canopy tree species selected to represent a range of wood density, tree size and architecture, and taxonomic diversity were used to generate moisture release curves in thermocouple psychrometer chambers, from which species‐specific values of sapwood capacitance were calculated. Sapwood capacitance was then used to scale several whole‐tree water transport properties determined from measurements of upper branch and basal sap flow, branch water potential, and axial and radial movement of deuterated water (D 2 O) injected into the base of the trunk as a tracer. Sapwood capacitance ranged from 83 to 416 kg m−3 MPa−1 among the four species studied and was strongly correlated with minimum branch water potential, soil‐to‐branch hydraulic conductance, daily utilization of stored water, and axial and radial movement of D 2 O. The species‐independent scaling of several whole‐tree water transport properties with sapwood capacitance indicated that substantial convergence in plant function at multiple levels of biological organization was revealed by a simple variable related to a biophysical property of water transport tissue.