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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

The Calibration and Use of Capacitance Sensors to Monitor Stem Water Content in Trees
Published on: December 27, 2017
Water uptake, diameter change, and nonlinear diffusion in tree stems
J Y Parlange1, N C Turner, P E Waggoner
1Department of Ecology and Climatology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut 06504.
Abstract:
A diffusion model for phloem swelling and contraction is proposed in which the rate of water movement changes markedly with moisture content. Good agreement between the actual swelling of the phloem of cotton stems and that predicted by the model was obtained. This result implies that water moves more readily into the phloem when it becomes wetter. This model also explains the lag of shrinkage of pine stems behind the water potential of the foliage and predicts that the lag is related to the thickness of the phloem.
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