Resolving confusions about jarrah dieback - don’t forget the plants

The name jarrah dieback has been used for two different disorders, leading to considerable confusion. It was coined in the 1940s to describe the sudden death of groups of jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) trees in south western Western Australia, which occurred on poorly drained sites, following exceptionally heavy rainfall. In the 1960s these sites were shown to be infested by Phytophthora cinnamomi and jarrah deaths were attributed to it, even though it was only isolated from 5 % of sampled trees. Also the definition of jarrah dieback was expanded to include deaths of many other plants on infested sites, from which P. cinnamomi was more readily isolated. Jarrah trees die from severe water deficiency, indicating problems with water conduction through roots. Xylem vessel diameters vary along roots, being narrow at the root collar, while distally they are larger, providing water storage. Jarrah transpires vigorously during summer, accessing water at depth on sites with deep soil, but being more dependent on internally stored water when root systems are shallower. Following waterlogging, sapwood vessels become blocked with tyloses, reducing both conductivity and potential water storage; such trees may have insufficient water reserves for summer survival. In jarrah P. cinnamomi is unlikely to cause water deficiency because sapwood invasion is rapidly contained in healthy roots. Recent investigations into P. cinnamomi invasion and host responses in other plants show that it can potentially cause a vascular wilt in Banksia spp. and chronic, symptomless infections in herbaceous plants. Susceptibility to waterlogging damage, and/or mortality resulting from infection by P. cinnamomi can only be clarified by detailed knowledge of the hosts and their vulnerabilities. This is essential for making diagnoses, devising management strategies, and avoiding the confusions of the past

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Buttress form of the central African rain forest tree Microberlinia bisulcata, and its possible role in nutrient acquisition

Buttressing is a trait special to tropical trees but explanations for its occurrence remain inconclusive. The two main hypotheses are that they provide structural support and/or promote nutrient acquisition. Studies of the first are common but the second has received much less attention. Architectural measurements were made on adult and juvenile trees of the ectomycorrhizal species Microberlinia bisulcata, in Korup (Cameroon). Buttressing on this species is highly distinctive with strong lateral extension of surface roots of the juveniles leading to a mature buttress system of a shallow spreading form on adults. This contrasts with more vertical buttresses, closer to the stem, found on many other tropical tree species. No clear relationship between main buttress and large branch distribution was found. Whilst this does not argue against the essential structural role of buttresses for these very large tropical trees, the form on M. bisulcata does suggest a likely second role, that of aiding nutrient acquisition. At the Korup site, with its deep sandy soils of very low phosphorus status, and where most nutrient cycling takes place in a thin surface layer of fine roots and mycorrhizas, it appears that buttress form could develop from soil-surface root exploration for nutrients by juvenile trees. It may accordingly allow M. bisulcata to attain the higher greater competitive ability, faster growth rate, and maximum tree size that it does compared with other co-occurring tree species. For sites across the tropics in general, the degree of shallowness and spatial extension of buttresses of the dominant species is hypothesized to increase with decreasing nutrient availability