Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T15:09:13.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Wood anatomy and climate change

from Section 2 - Adaptation, speciation and extinction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2011

P. Baas
Affiliation:
National Herbarium of the Netherlands, Leiden
E. A. Wheeler
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University, NC, USA
Trevor R. Hodkinson
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Michael B. Jones
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Stephen Waldren
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
John A. N. Parnell
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Get access

Summary

Abstract

This chapter reviews the potential of comparative wood anatomy for climate reconstruction and for assessing the possible risks of global warming to extant woody plants. There is growing evidence that wood evolution has been driven by functional adaptations to climate change in vessel-bearing woody angiosperms, giving rise to multiple parallelisms and reversals in vessel, fibre, parenchyma and ray modifications. Despite this homoplasy, wood anatomical character complexes are phylogenetically constrained, often allowing different clades at various levels of the taxonomic hierarchy (families, genera and groups of closely related species) to be reliably identified by wood anatomical attributes alone. Examples are presented of how wood anatomical characters can be used as climate proxies, especially for mean annual temperature (MAT), and its covariables latitude and altitude. One of the great challenges of modern wood research is to model the relationships between climate and wood anatomical diversity patterns of extinct and extant plant communities in such a way that the impact of current and future climate change can be predicted reliably.

Introduction

Secondary xylem is a multifunctional, complex plant tissue that provides an ar- chive of the external signals that modified its functional attributes at different timescales, from the lifespan of a single tree to millions of years of biological evolution (Baas, 1986; Wheeler and Baas, 1991, 1993; Carlquist, 2001; Sperry, 2003; Baas et al., 2004; Poole and van den Bergen, 2006; Wheeler et al., 2007).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

,Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2003). An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society of London, 141, 399–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baas, P. (1976). Some functional and adaptive aspects of vessel member morphology. In Wood Structure in Biological and Technological Research, ed. Baas, P., Bolton, A. J. and Catling, D. M.. Leiden Botanical Series No. 3, Leiden: Leiden University Press, pp. 157–181.Google Scholar
Baas, P. (1982). Systematic, phylogenetic, and ecological wood anatomy – history and perspectives. In New Perspectives in Wood Anatomy, ed. Baas, P.. The Hague: Nijhoff and Junk, pp. 23–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baas, P. (1986). Ecological patterns in xylem anatomy. In On the Economy of Plant Form and Function, ed. Givnish, J.. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 327–352.Google Scholar
Baas, P. and Carlquist, S. (1985). A comparison of the ecological wood anatomy of the floras of southern California and Israel. International Association of Wood Anatomists Bulletin New Series, 6, 349–353.Google Scholar
Baas, P. and Schweingruber, F. H. (1987). Ecological trends in the wood anatomy of trees, shrubs and climbers from Europe. International Association of Wood Anatomists Bulletin New Series, 8, 245–274.Google Scholar
Baas, P. and Wheeler, E. A. (1996). Parallelism and reversibility of xylem evolution – a review. International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal, 17, 351–364.Google Scholar
Baas, P., Wheeler, E. A. and Chase, M. W. (2000). Dicotyledonous wood anatomy and the APG system of angiosperm classification. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society of London, 134, 3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baas, P., Jansen, S. and Wheeler, E. A. (2003). Ecological adaptations and deep phylogenetic splits: evidence from the secondary xylem. In Deep Morphology: Toward a Renaissance of Morphology in Plant Systematics, ed. T. F. Stuessy, V. Mayer and E. Hörandl. Regnum Vegetabile, 141, 221–239.
Baas, P., Ewers, F. W., Davies, S. D. and Wheeler, E. A. (2004). The evolution of xylem physiology. In Evolution of Plant Physiology from Whole Plants to Ecosystems, ed. Hemsley, A. R. and Poole, I.. Linnean Society Symposium Series No. 21. London: Elsevier Academic Press, pp. 273–296.Google Scholar
Bailey, I. W. (1954). Contributions to plant anatomy. Chronica Botanica, 15, xxvi and 262.Google Scholar
Bailey, I. W. and Tupper, W. W. (1918). Size variation in tracheary cells I: a comparison between the secondary xylems of vascular cryptogams, gymnosperms and angiosperms. Proceedings of the American Academy ofArts and Science, 54, 149–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boura, A. and Franceschi, D. (2007). Is porous wood structure exclusive of deciduous trees?Comptes Rendus Palevol, 6, 385–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briffa, K. R. (2000). Annual climate variability in the Holocene: interpreting the message of ancient trees. Quaternary Science Reviews, 19, 87–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlquist, S. (1975). Ecological Strategies of Xylem Evolution. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Carlquist, S. (2001). Comparative Wood Anatomy: Systematic, Ecological, and Evolutionary Aspects of Dicotyledon Wood. Berlin, NY: Springer Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlquist, S. and Hoekman, D. A. (1985). Ecological wood anatomy of the woody southern California flora. International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal, 6, 319–347.Google Scholar
Chave, J., Coomes, D., Jansen, S. et al. (2009). Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Ecology Letters, 12, 351–366.CrossRef
Choat, B., Cobb, A. R. and Jansen, S. (2008). Structure and function of bordered pits: new discoveries and impacts on whole-plant hydraulic function. New Phytologist, 177, 608–626.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chudnoff, M. (1976). Density of tropical timbers as influenced by climatic life zones. Commonwealth Forestry Review, 55, 203–217.Google Scholar
Davis, M. B. and Shaw, R. G. (2001). Range shifts and adaptive responses to Quaternary climate change. Science, 292, 673–679.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gorschuch, D. M., Oberbauer, S. F. and Fisher, J. B. (2001). Comparative vessel anatomy of arctic deciduous and evergeen dicots. American Journal ofBotany, 88, 1643–1649.Google Scholar
Graham, A. (1999). Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic History of North American Vegetation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gricar, J. (2007). Xylo- and phloemogenesis in silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karts.). Studia Forestalia Slovenica, 132, 1–106.Google Scholar
Hacke, U. G., Sperry, J. S., Pockman, W. T., Davies, S. D. and McCulloh, K. A. (2001). Trends in wood density and structure are linked to prevention of xylem implosion by negative pressure. Oecologia, 126, 457–461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hacke, U. G., Sperry, J. S., Wheeler, J. K. and Castro, L. (2006). Scaling of angiosperm xylem structure with safety and efficiency. Tree Physiology, 26, 689–701.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jansen, S., Baas, P. and Smets, E. (2003). Vestured pits: do they promote safer water transport?International Journal of Plant Science, 164, 405–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jansen, S., Baas, P. Gasson, P., Lens, F. and Smets, E. (2004). Variation in xylem structure from tropics to tundra: evidence from vestured pits.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 101, 8833–8837.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lenoir, J., Gégout, J. C., Marquet, P. A., Ruffray, P. and Brisse, H. (2008). A significant upward shift in plant species optimum elevation during the 20th century. Science, 320, 1768–1771.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lens, F., Schöneberger, J., Baas, P., Jansen, S. and Smets, E. (2007). The role of wood anatomy in phylogeny reconstruction of Ericales. Cladistics, 23, 229–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, J. and Noshiro, S. (2003). Lack of latitudinal trends in wood anatomy of Dodonaea viscosa (Sapindaceae), a species with a worldwide distribution. American Journal of Botany, 90, 532–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loconte, H. and Stevenson, D. W. (1991). Cladistics of the Magnoliidae. Cladistics, 7, 267–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noshiro, S. and Baas, P. (2000). Latitudinal trends in wood anatomy within species and genera: a case study in Cornus s.l. (Cornaceae). American Journal of Botany, 87,1495–1506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overdieck, D., Ziche, D. and Böttcher-Jungclaus, K. (2007). Temperature responses of growth and wood anatomy in European beech saplings grown in different carbon dioxide concentrations. Tree Physiology, 27, 261–268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poole, I. and Bergen, P. F. (2006). Physiognomic and chemical characters in wood as paleoclimatic proxies. Plant Ecology, 182, 175–195.Google Scholar
Roderick, M. L. and Berry, S. L. (2001). Linking wood density with tree growth and environment: a theoretical analysis based on the motion of water. New Phytologist, 149, 473–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sakala, J. (2007). The potential of fossil angiosperm wood to reconstruct the palaeoclimate in the Tertiary of central Europe (Czech Republic, Germany). Acta Palaeobotanica, 47, 127–133.Google Scholar
Sperry, J.S. (2003). Evolution of water transport and xylem structure. International Journal of Plant Science, 164, S115-S127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sperry, J. S., Hacke, J. G., Field, T. S., Sano, Y. and Sikkema, E. H. (2007). Hydraulic consequences of vessel evolution in angiosperms. International Journal ofPlant Science, 168, 1127–1139.Google Scholar
Swenson, N. G. and Enquist, B. J. (2007). Ecological and evolutionary determinants of a key plant functional trait: wood density and its community-wide variation across latitude and elevation. American Journal of Botany, 94, 451–459.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tamis, W., van' t Zelfde, M., Meijden, R. and Udo de Haes, H. A. (2005). Changes in vascular plant biodiversity in the Netherlands in the 20th century explained by their climatic and other environmental characteristics. ClimateChange, 72, 37–56.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. S., Montagu, K. D. and Conroy, J. P. (2007). Temperature effects on wood anatomy, wood density, photosynthesis and biomass partitioning of Eucalyptus grandis seedlings. Tree Physiology, 27, 251–260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyree, M. T. and Zimmermann, M. H. (2002). Xylem Structure and the Ascent of Sap, 2nd edn. Berlin: Springer Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graaff, N. A. and Baas, P. (1974). Wood anatomical variation in relation to latitude and altitude. Blumea, 22, 101–121.Google Scholar
Wheeler, E. A. and Baas, P. (1991). A survey of the fossil record from dicotyledonous wood and its significance for evolutionary and ecological wood anatomy. International Association of Wood Anatomists Bulletin New Series, 12, 275–332.Google Scholar
Wheeler, E. A. and Baas, P. (1993). The potentials and limitations of dicotyledonous wood anatomy for climatic reconstructions. Paleobiology, 14, 486–497.Google Scholar
Wheeler, E. A. and Dillhoff, T. (2009). The Middle Miocene wood flora from Vantage, Washington, USA. International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal, Suppl. 7.
Wheeler, E. A. and Manchester, S. R. (2002). Woods of the Eocene Nuts Beds flora, Clarno Formation, Oregon, USA. International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal, Suppl. 3.
Wheeler, E. A., Baas, P. and Rodgers, S. A. (2007). Variations in dicot wood anatomy: a global analysis based on the InsideWood database. International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal, 28, 229–258.Google Scholar
Wiemann, M. C., Wheeler, E. A., Manchester, S. R. and Portier, K. M. (1998). Dicotyledonous wood anatomical characters as predictors of climate. Palaeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 139, 83–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiemann, M. C., Manchester, S. R. and Wheeler, E. A. (1999). Paleotemperature estimation from dicotyledonous wood anatomical characters. Palaios, 14, 459–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiemann, M. C., Dilcher, D. L. and Manchester, S. R. (2001). Estimation of mean annual temperature from leaf and wood physiognomy. Forest Science, 47, 141–149.Google Scholar
Wolfe, J. A. (1978). A paleobotanical interpretation of Tertiary climates in the northern hemisphere. American Scientist, 66, 694–703.Google Scholar
Wolfe, J. A. (1987). Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic history of deciduousness and the terminal Cretaceous event. Paleobiology, 13, 215–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmermann, M. H. (1978). Structural requirements for optimal water conduction in tree stems. In Tropical Trees as Living Systems, ed. Tomlinson, P. B. and Zimmermann, M. H.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 517–532.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×