Rosemarie Langenfeld-Heyser

Ecology and ecophysiology of tree stems: corticular and wood photosynthesis

Abstract. Below the outer peridermal or rhytidomal layers, most stems of woody plants possess greenish tissues. These chlorophyll-containing tissues (the chlorenchymes) within the stems are able to use the stem internal CO2 and the light penetrating the rhytidome to photoassimilate and produce sugars and starch. Although net photosynthetic uptake of CO2 is rarely found, stem internal re-fixation of CO2 in young twigs and branches may compensate for 60–90% of the potential respiratory carbon loss. Isolated chlorenchymal tissues reveal rather high rates of net photosynthesis (being up to 75% of the respective rates for leaf photosynthesis). Corticular photosynthesis is thus thought to be an effective mechanism for recapturing respiratory carbon dioxide before it diffuses out of the stem. Furthermore, chloroplasts of the proper wood or pith fraction also take part in stem internal photosynthesis. Although there has been no strong experimental evidence until now, we suggest that the oxygen evolved during wood or pith photosynthesis may play a decisive role in avoiding/reducing stem internal anaerobiosis.

FTIR spectroscopy, chemical and histochemical characterisation of wood and lignin of five tropical timber wood species of the family of Dipterocarpaceae

The goal of this study was to characterise chemical and histochemical properties of five dipterocarp timber wood species (Dipterocarpus kerrii, Hopea plagata, Parashorea malaanoman, Shorea almon, and Shorea contorta) differing in wood service life and utilisation. Wood of H. plagata, the most durable species, contained the lowest concentrations of nitrogen and ligno-protein, the highest C/N ratio and the lowest lignin concentration per dry mass but the highest lignin and extractive concentrations per wood density. FTIR spectroscopic studies of wood and isolated lignins of D. kerrii and H. plagata revealed differences compared to P. malaanoman and Shorea sp., which are species with short service life. Lignins of the Shorea/Parashorea species had a higher G/S ratio than those of H. plagata and D. kerrii. This was also evident from histochemical staining. Principle component analysis of FTIR spectra identified differences in both lignin composition and ligno-protein content as major source of variation.

Influence of Environmental Pollution on Leaf Properties of Urban Plane Trees, Platanus orientalis L.

To investigate whether leaves of plane trees (Platanus orientalis) are damaged by traffic pollution, trees from a megacity (Mashhad, Iran) and a rural area were investigated. Soil and air from the urban centre showed enrichment of several toxic elements, but only lead was enriched in leaves. Leaf size and stomata density were lower at the urban site. At the urban site leaf surfaces were heavily loaded by dust particles but the stomata were not occluded; the cuticle was thinner; other anatomical properties were unaffected suggesting that plane trees can cope with traffic exhaust in megacities.

CO2 fixation in stem slices of Picea abies (L.) Karst: microautoradiographic studies

SummaryMicroautoradiography was used to show that chlorophyllous cells of young Picea abies stem slices are able to fix 14CO2, in the dark as well as in the light. The amount of 14CO2 fixed in the dark is much lower than that in the light. In the dark the concentration of radioactive label is equally high in all chlorophyllous cells of the stem. In the light, however, a gradient of radioactive assimilates extends from the stem surface to its centre, with the highest concentration being located in the phelloderm and the outer one-third of the cortex. This is in spite of even illumination and CO2 supply across the whole stem slice. In the dark, stem slices with and without bark show the same amount of radioactive label in the chlorophyllous cells of xylem, perimedullary region and pith. In the light, however, the concentration of radioactive assimilates in these cells is much higher in stem slices with bark than in stem slices without bark. It is assumed therefore that light fixation products of phelloderm and cortex are transported radially into the tissue inside the cambium.

Distribution of leaf assimilates in the stem of Picea abies L.

SummaryAutoradiographic and microautoradiographic studies of 2-year-old Picea abies plants show that in summer leaf assimilates from the second-year shoot are translocated basipetally. Leaf assimilates are first transported to the stem via leaf trace phloem, then to the base of the stem in the sieve cells of the latest increment of secondary phloem. On the way down leaf assimilates move radially from sieve cells into cells of the phloem parenchyma, the vascular cambium, the rays, the inner periderm and certain cells of pith and cortex, including the epithelial cells surrounding the resin ducts. Other cells of pith and cortex remain nearly free of label, despite the long translocation time (20 h). With the exception of the vascular cambial cells, the stem cells that gain leaf assimilates by radial distribution coincide with those that contain chlorophyll and starch.

Microautoradiographic detection of CO2 fixation in lenticel chlorenchyma of youngFraxinus excelsior L. stems in early spring

Microautoradiography indicated that 1-year-oldFraxinus excelsior L. stem chlorenchyma assimilated external14CO2 in mid-April, when buds were swollen, but before bud-break. The lenticel regions showed the highest amount of radioactively labeled assimilates. Labeled assimilates declined in the tangential direction with increasing distance from lenticels, suggesting that14CO2 entered the stem through the open intercellular spaces of lenticels. In the radial direction, the amount of radioactively labeled assimilates did not constantly decline with growing distance from the lenticel entrance. It was high in all lenticel phelloderm cells, which had high chlorophyll autofluorescence and very small starch grains, highest in the adjacent 4–6 rows of chlorenchyma, which had larger starch grains that increased in size towards the interior rows, and much lower in the inner cortex chlorenchyma, which had large starch grains. We suggest that the main function of the lenticel chlorenchyma (lenticel phelloderm plus 4–6 rows of adjacent cortex chlorenchyma) is the refixation of respiratory CO2 which could easily leave the stem intercellular spaces, rather than the fixation of external CO2. The lenticel chlorenchyma could reduce the loss of respiratory CO2 by its photosynthetic activity.

Quantitative X-ray microanalysis of hydrogen peroxide within plant cells.

Using quantitative X‐ray microanalysis in combination with CeCl3‐based cytochemical staining of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) we have developed a new solution for quantification of H2O2 at the subcellular level. Quantitative X‐ray microanalysis of plastic‐embedded leaves of Populus euphratica Oliv. showed that the obtained cerium precipitates by CeCl3 staining were the mixture of cerium perhydroxides and cerium phosphate, in which the fractions of CePO4 were: (1) 52–74% in cell walls of fresh leaf segments, and (2) 34–70% in the cytoplasm in 10 mM H2O2‐treated leaf segments that were previously freeze‐dried. Taking the concentration of cerium phosphate as staining background, we reached the cellular concentration of cerium perhydroxides and the corresponding concentration of H2O2. Results showed that H2O2 was present in the cytoplasm of rehydrated leaf segments (29–58 mM), but in fresh leaves, H2O2 was observed in the walls of all measured cell types (17–74 mM). Microsc. Res. Tech., 2009.