Changing Places: Tree Nutrient Movement Down, Tree Water Movement Up

Summary: A.D. Ali and Christine Balk of The Davey Institute cover translocation of tree nutrient movement actively downward and tree water movement passively upward.

Consideration of downward and upward tree translocation is critical for assessments of tree nutrient movement and tree injection methods: USDA Forest Service-Region 8-Southern/USDA Forest Service/Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images

Tree nutrient movement and tree water movement access all tree parts through active basipetal and passive acropetal translocation, according to Basic Tree Plumbing: Translocation for the August 2016 issue of Arborist News.

A.D. Ali and Christine Balk of The Davey Institute division of The Davey Tree Expert Company broach translocation's changing of place acropetally upwards and basipetally downwards. They consider acropetal translocation of water with dissolved soil minerals and with plant-regulating hormones, called cytokinins, passive because of water's high cohesion creating strong intermolecular attractions.

Cohesion drives translation's transpiration component by drawing water molecules from soil, through "young, non-hardened roots" and up trunks for evaporation through bark, fruit, lenticels and stomata. It explains bead-like, "semi-spherical" looks of water droplets whose elaboration atop upper, waxy leaf surfaces ensues from the "high water surface tension" that high cohesion engenders.

Transpiration flows water upwards, predominantly during daytime hours, to fill 80 percent of a tree's space with coolant, photosynthetic ingredients, solvent, stomatal emissions and "transport medium."

Such ring-porous species as ash, black locust, chestnut and red oak get water flow speeds respectively at 85, 52, 95, 79 and 92 feet per hour. Such diffuse-porous species as black walnut, maple, willow and yellow poplar have respectively slower tree water movements of 14, 8, 10 and 9 feet per hour. The flow is slowest in such coniferous, non-porous species as hemlock, larch, pine and spruce, with respective hourly speeds of 3, 7, 6 and 4 feet.

Living phloem cells juggle downward flows of plant-growing hormones called auxins from leaves and of photosynthetic products such as carbohydrates from foliage and green bark tissues.

Basipetal translocation keeps to active pathways from production sources to storage and utilization sinks since energy kindles selectively leading hormones, nutrients and sugar into living cells.

J.W. Kimball's Pressure-Flow Hypothesis looks at basipetal tree water movement whereas cohesion osmosis from high- to low-potential areas and transpiration columnar pull lead to acropetal smoothness. Acropetal translocation moves less smoothly in resource-limiting soils where M.G. Ryan's and B.J. Yoder's Hydraulic Limitation Hypothesis matches gravitational and transpirational pulls to tree height's detriment. Tree height growth needs photosynthesis, which needs gas exchanges of entering carbon dioxide molecules for exiting oxygen molecules, which need open stomata with turgid guard cells.

Pores called stomata occur on lower leaf surfaces to close from external and internal drought and to open for cooling, heat-induced evaporation and photosynthesis-friendly gas exchange.

Closed stomata with flaccid guard cells prevent carbon dioxide from participating in photosynthetic releases of atmospheric oxygen and chlorophyll from absorbing solar energy for photosynthesizing carbohydrates. They quash tendencies of cohesive forces to break into air bubbles, called cavitations or embolisms, in xylem and of water to evaporate during warming, windy weather.

Proper tree water movement requires strong stomata and roots to resist intakes of desiccating, dissolved ion, metal and salt solids (TDS) of 2,000 milligrams per liter. It likewise shuns the nutrient deficiencies that show up when improper soil pH, ideally at 6.0 to 6.5, serves no, too few or too many nutrients.

Roots and shoots thrive when tree nutrient movement and tree water movement take in species-specific mixes of "water, sunlight, wind, humidity, soil pH, nutrients, and space."

open and closed stomata; open stomata allow for essential gas exchanges of incoming carbon dioxide molecules and outgoing oxygen molecules; closed stomata disturb photosynthesis releases: Ali Zifan, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to:
talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet;
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

Image credits:

Consideration of downward and upward tree translocation is critical for assessments of tree nutrient movement and tree injection methods: USDA Forest Service-Region 8-Southern/USDA Forest Service/Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1506045

open and closed stomata; open stomata allow for essential gas exchanges of incoming carbon dioxide molecules and outgoing oxygen molecules; closed stomata disturb photosynthesis releases: Ali Zifan, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opening_and_Closing_of_Stoma.svg

For further information:

Balk, Christine; and Ali, A.D. August 2016. "Basic Tree Plumbing: Translocation." Arborist News 25(4): 12-17.

Gilman, Ed. 2011. An Illustrated Guide to Pruning. Third Edition. Boston MA: Cengage.

Hayes, Ed. 2001. Evaluating Tree Defects. Revised, Special Edition. Rochester MN: Safe Trees.

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