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A low-cost protocol for the optical method of vulnerability curves to calculate P 50
Georgina González-Rebeles1,2, Miguel Ángel Alonso-Arevalo3, Eulogio López1
1Departamento de Biología de la Conservación, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada Carretera Ensenada Tijuana No. 3918, Zona Playitas, C.P. 22860 Ensenada Baja California Mexico.
Premise:
The quantification of plant drought resistance, particularly embolism formation, within and across species, is critical for ecosystem management and agriculture. We developed a cost-effective protocol to measure the water potential at which 50% of hydraulic conductivity (P 50) is lost in stems, using affordable and accessible materials in comparison to the traditional optical method.
Methods And Results:
Our protocol uses inexpensive USB microscopes, which are secured along with the plants to a pegboard base to avoid movement. A Python program automatized the image acquisition. This method was applied to quantify P 50 in an exotic species (Nicotiana glauca) and native species (Rhus integrifolia) of the Mediterranean vegetation in Baja California, Mexico.
Conclusions:
The intra- and interspecific patterns of variation in stem P 50 of N. glauca and R. integrifolia were obtained using the low-cost optical method with widely available and affordable materials that can be easily replicated for other species.
