Leaf hydraulics

Visualizing embolism in Laurel leaves

Bruny island 2016

By imaging a laurel leaf at 3 min intervals and by subtracting the difference between the images to see where an embolism formed, we were able to determine at which water potential laurel leaves cavitate. Images were colorized by how much time had elapsed and combined to give a complete picture of the plant’s response to water stress.

This new technique to measure resistance to water stress was developped by Brodribb et al (2016) and is now running at the GENOBOIS Platform Caviplace.

This study was conducted by Déborah Corso, Laurent J Lamarque, Gaëlle Capdeville, José Manuel Torres Ruiz, Régis Burlett and Sylvain Delzon.

It has been carried out with financial support from the French National Research Agency (ANR) in the frame of the Investments

for the future Programme, within the Cluster of Excellence COTE (ANR-10-LABX-45).