Ultrasonic acoustic emissions in drought-stressed trees - more than signals from cavitation?

Zweifel, Roman; Zeugin, Fabienne (2008). Ultrasonic acoustic emissions in drought-stressed trees - more than signals from cavitation? New Phytologist, 179(4), pp. 1070-1079. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02521.x

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Ultrasonic acoustic emission (UAE) in trees is often related to collapsing water columns in the flow path as a result of tensions that are too strong (cavitation). However, in a decibel (dB) range below that associated with cavitation, a close relationship was found between UAE intensities and stem radius changes.
• UAE was continuously recorded on the stems of mature field-grown trees of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and pubescent oak (Quercus pubescens) at a dry inner-Alpine site in Switzerland over two seasons. The averaged 20-Hz records were related to microclimatic conditions in air and soil, sap-flow rates and stem-radius fluctuations de-trended for growth (ΔW).
• Within a low-dB range (27 ± 1 dB), UAE regularly increased and decreased in a diurnal rhythm in parallel with ΔW on cloudy days and at night. These low-dB emissions were interrupted by UAE abruptly switching between the low-dB range and a high-dB range (36 ± 1 dB) on clear, sunny days, corresponding to the widely supported interpretation of UAE as sound from cavitations.
• It is hypothesized that the low-dB signals in drought-stressed trees are caused by respiration and/or cambial growth as these physiological activities are tissue water-content dependent and have been shown to produce courses of CO2 efflux similar to our courses of ΔW and low-dB UAE.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Vegetation Ecology [discontinued]

UniBE Contributor:

Zweifel, Roman Franz

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology

ISSN:

0028-646X

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 15:09

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:21

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02521.x

Web of Science ID:

000258266200016

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.30439

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/30439 (FactScience: 194449)

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