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Updated: Apr 24, 2026
05:26
A Venturi Effect Can Help Cure Our Trees
Published on: October 1, 2013
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Synergies between hydraulic safety and efficiency reduce tree susceptibility to insect attack
Sara J Germain1, Matt F Bekker2, Savannah A Collins-Key3
1Botany, University of Wyoming, 1000 E University Ave, Laramie, WY 82071, USA.
Tree Physiology
|April 23, 2026
Summary
Trees with better hydraulic safety and efficiency resist insect attacks, crucial for survival in a warming world. Understanding these traits helps predict forest resilience to drought and pests.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Forest Science
- Plant Physiology
Background:
- Drought and insect outbreaks pose significant threats to trees, especially in a changing climate.
- The relationship between tree hydraulic traits and susceptibility to insect attack is not well understood at the species level.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how hydraulic safety and efficiency in whitebark pine xylem influence growth and survival during insect outbreaks.
- To assess intraspecific and ontogenetic variability in xylem hydraulic traits.
Main Methods:
- Anatomical and isotopic measurements of stem xylem to determine hydraulic safety and efficiency.
- Comparison of xylem traits between whitebark pine trees that survived and those that succumbed to a mountain pine beetle outbreak.
Main Results:
- At the individual tree level, higher hydraulic safety (cell-wall reinforcement, wood density) and efficiency (hydraulic conductivity, carbon-use efficiency) were linked to increased growth, carbon storage, and survival.
- Annual analysis revealed tradeoffs between safety and efficiency, but years maximizing both traits correlated with the highest tree growth and carbon storage.
- Xylem hydraulic traits showed significant differences between surviving and non-surviving trees during the outbreak, indicating higher safety and efficiency enhance resistance to bark beetles.
Conclusions:
- Hydraulic safety and efficiency are key traits for whitebark pine growth, carbon storage, and survival, particularly under drought and insect pressure.
- Tree resistance to insect attack is modulated by their hydraulic architecture, highlighting the importance of these traits in forest resilience.
- Future tree responses to increased herbivory will be influenced by their adaptive capacity to climate warming and altered hydrological conditions.
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