Accuracy and Usefulness of Psychrometer and Pressure Chamber for Evaluating Water Potentials of Pinus radiata Needles

Abstract

Pressure chamber evaluations of xylem sap pressure potential (P) and thermocouple psychrometric evaluations of average water potential (Ψ_l) in needles from both transpiring and non-transpiring pine trees (Pinus radiata D. Don) were compared in order to determine the relative accuracy and usefulness of these methods for assessing Ψ_l. Markedly different but linear P v. Ψ_l relationships were obtained for pine needles of different age and also for the case where resin exudation masked the xylem and led to a 'resin error'. Evidence suggests that these differences are mainly due to injection and resin errors in pressure chamber determinations totalling as much as 1 MPa (a 10 bar). The psychrometric method appears to be the much more accurate. Radial water potential gradients across leaves did not result in differences between evaluations of P and Ψ_l, at least in P. radiata. The need for multiple 'calibrations' of the pressure chamber and the fundamental uncertainty about the constancy of such calibrations on the one hand and the slowness of the excised-needle psychrometer on the other can restrict the usefulness of these methods.