ALBERT

Notizen: Abstract. With the aid of specifically designed potometer experiments, it is shown that, after ozone fumigation, twigs transpiring in gas exchange chambers show poor water balance in decreasing humidity. The quotient of water uptake to water loss never falls below 0.9 in healthy material because of the control capacity of the stomata. In twigs from a tree fumigated with ozone irregular and delayed stomatal closure results in values of 〈 0.5 or even lower, depending on the degree of damage. As a result, in dry air, the transpiration rates of fumigated twigs often fall far below those of the control material, even if they were higher than the latter in humid air. In analogous experiments, the difference in behaviour between twigs of densely (‘healthy’) and sparsely needled (‘damaged’) trees from the natural stand is comparable to the difference between controls and ozone-fumigated trees in most respects. In soil that is more or less dried out and after the best possible saturation of the twigs during the night, the transpiration rates of fumigated trees increase fairly strongly in the humid chamber air at dawn, but finally decrease more or less suddenly to lower values than in the controls. The results are placed in the context of the basic research on plant water relations and compared with histological changes in the stomatal apparatus after a period of fumigation as described earlier. Therefore, long-term effects of pollution can be explained as a specific distrubance of hydroregulation.

Notizen: Seasonal changes of some water relations parameters of Norway spruce shoots (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) were studied during two experiments using the pressure-volume analysis. For each experiment only shoots of a single tree were used.During the first study, the course of the turgor loss point (as bulk osmotic pressure when turgor first reaches zero, πp) of shoots developed in late 1986 vegetation period, were measured in 1987. The turgor loss point decreased temporarily from –2.5 MPa at the beginning of the year to –3.3 MPa at the end of March, but then increased to the original level for the rest of the year.During the second study, water relations parameters were measured in late summer 1987 and in late winter 1988. Winter shoots at full water saturation contained up to 20% less water than in late summer. Accordingly, the bulk osmotic pressure at full water saturation (πp) decreased from –1.7 MPa in late summer to –1.9 MPa in winter, πp decreased also from –2.2 MPa to –2.8 MPa. However, the amount of osmotically active substances (mOsmol, N) remained unchanged. The relative amount of apoplastic water in the total shoot water content appeared to drop insignificantly from 17% to 15%.The results show that the decrease in πo and πp in late winter is not due to an accumulation of osmotically active substances in the vacuoles but is due to a decrease in tissue water content. The temporary reduction of the symplastic volume by deposition of osmotically inert substances seems to be the most probable cause of this phenomenon.

Notizen: Using the pressure volume analysis (PV analysis) on the shoots of Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) and the here presented capillary microcryoscopy of the needle press sap of the same shoots, it was possible to determine the amount of apoplastic water in the needles (Wan) as well as in the defoliated shoots (Was). Additionally, the bulk osmotic pressure at full water saturation in the symplast of the needles and defoliated shoots (πon and πos) was determined. The dependence of the bulk-averaged turgor pressure (Pt) on the water content and the relationship between the bulk modulus of elasticity of the needles (ɛn) and the bulk-averaged needle turgor pressure (Ptn) was shown with help of the PV analysis on the whole shoots and defoliated shoots. The study was conducted at the end of the vegetation period in 1987 and during winter 1988.The proportion of Wan in the total needle water content (Wtn) was 14% in September 1987 and 12.5% in March 1988. The respective percentage of Was in Wts were 27% and 25%. The amount of apoplastic water depended on the ratio of the dry weight of defoliated shoots to the dry weight of the whole shoots. A standard mean value for the amount of Wan in the total water content of the shoots (Wt) was therefore not possible. The bulk osmotic pressure at full water saturation in the needle symplasts was –1.9 MPa in September 1987 and –2.2 MPa in winter 1988. The respective values of the bulk osmotic pressures in the symplast of the defoliated shoots (πos) were –1.5 MPa and –1.7 MPa. Thus πon was 0.1 MPa lower and πos 0.3–0.4 MPa higher than the average osmotic pressure during full water saturation in the symplast of the whole shoots (πo).The relation between bulk-averaged turgor pressure and water content showed that during water loss Ptn dropped more rapidly than the turgor pressure of defoliated shoots (Pts). Consequently the needles were less elastic than the defoliated shoots. The turgor values of whole shoots followed an intemediate course between Ptn and Pts. The flat course of Pts seems to be the main reason for the often observed “plateau” of ψ-isotherms of whole shoots near full turgor.