[Divergence between ring- and diffuse-porous wood types in broadleaf trees of Changbai Mountains results in...

Hydraulic characteristics of trees are strongly influenced by their xylem structures. The divergence in wood type between ring-porous and diffuse-porous species is expected to lead to significantly different hydraulic architecture between these two functional groups. However, there is a lack of comprehensive comparative studies in hydraulic traits between the two groups, in that no study has compared the whole-shoot level hydraulic conductance and detailed pit-level xylem anatomy has not been reported yet. In the present study, detailed hydraulic related traits were stu-died in three ring-porous and four diffuse-porous tree species commonly found in the broadleaf tree species of the Changbai Mountains, including whole-shoot hydraulic conductance (K_shoot), resis-tance to drought-induced embolism (P₅₀), and detailed tissue- and pit-level anatomical characteristics. Our results showed that: 1) consistent with the differences in stem hydraulic conductivity, ring-porous species showed significantly higher K_shoot but significantly lower resistance to drought-induced embolism, i.e., higher P₅₀, indicating a trade-off between hydraulic efficiency and safety in those two functional groups; 2) consistent with their significant divergence in hydraulic functions, the two functional groups showed significant differences in a suite of xylem anatomical characteristics at both the tissue and pit levels, such as maximum vessel length, vessel diameter, pit aperture area and aperture fraction; 3) significant correlations were identified between xylem structural characteristics and between structure and functions across both functional groups, indicating that differences in hydraulic functions were underlain by divergences in a suite structural traits. The competing structural requirements between different hydraulic traits, such as between shoot hydraulic conductance and resistance to drought-induced embolism, reflected the biophysical constraints of xylem design that could not fulfill multiple requirements of xylem functioning at the same time.