Scientific advisors
Prof. Dr. C. Leuschner, Dr. V. Horna

Project

Complementarity of water use between 5 tree species in species-rich deciduous forests

This project deals with the characterization of the water use of five competing tree species (beech, ash, lime, hornbeam, sycamore) and a comparison of species specific differences. The hydraulic architecture will be investigated with sap flow measurements, hydraulic conductivity measurements and anatomical structure survey. To get a whole picture of the trees the investigations will be done on root, stem, branch and leaf level. In terms of a changing climate we want to examine the reactions and strategies of the tree species to drought.

Methods

• Hydraulic conductivity measurements (Sperry 1988)
• Sap flow measurements (Granier 1987) (thermal dissipation method)
• Scholander pressure chamber (Scholander et al. 1965) to measure leaf water potential and pressure volume curves
• Porometery LiCor1600 for measurements of leaf conductance and transpiration
• Vulnerability of xylem to cavitation (Sperry & Saliendra 1994) (air-injection method)
• Automatic dendrometry to determine stem water potential and water storage capacitance of the stem
• Mobile canopy lifter for canopy access (max. 30m)
• Determination of soil water potential with tensiometers (manual and automatic) and equitensiometers