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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 35(6)

An analysis of the sensitivity of sap flux to soil and plant variables assessed for an Australian woodland using a soil–plant–atmosphere model

Melanie Zeppel A C , Catriona Macinnis-Ng A , Anthony Palmer A , Daniel Taylor A , Rhys Whitley A , Sigfredo Fuentes A , Isa Yunusa A , Mathew Williams B and Derek Eamus A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Institute for Water and Environmental Resource Management and Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.

B School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JN, UK.

C Corresponding author. Email: melanie.zeppel@uts.edu.au

D This paper originates from a presentation at EcoFIZZ 2007, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia, September 2007.

Functional Plant Biology 35(6) 509-520 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP08114
Submitted: 9 April 2008  Accepted: 10 June 2008   Published: 4 August 2008

Abstract

Daily and seasonal patterns of tree water use were measured for the two dominant tree species, Angophora bakeri E.C.Hall (narrow-leaved apple) and Eucalyptus sclerophylla (Blakely) L.A.S. Johnson & Blaxell (scribbly gum), in a temperate, open, evergreen woodland using sap flow sensors, along with information about soil, leaf, tree and micro-climatological variables. The aims of this work were to: (a) validate a soil–plant–atmosphere (SPA) model for the specific site; (b) determine the total depth from which water uptake must occur to achieve the observed rates of tree sap flow; (c) examine whether the water content of the upper soil profile was a significant determinant of daily rates of sap flow; and (d) examine the sensitivity of sap flow to several biotic factors. It was found that: (a) the SPA model was able to accurately replicate the hourly, daily and seasonal patterns of sap flow; (b) water uptake must have occurred from depths of up to 3 m; (c) sap flow was independent of the water content of the top 80 cm of the soil profile; and (d) sap flow was very sensitive to the leaf area of the stand, whole tree hydraulic conductance and the critical water potential of the leaves, but insensitive to stem capacitance and increases in root biomass. These results are important to future studies of the regulation of vegetation water use, landscape-scale behaviour of vegetation, and to water resource managers, because they allow testing of large-scale management options without the need for large-scale manipulations of vegetation cover.

Additional keywords: hydraulic conductance, narrow-leaved apple, scribbly gum, soil moisture, transpiration.


Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of WSN Environmental Solutions who gave access to their native forest site, and acknowledge the financial assistance of the Australian Research Council and WSN Environmental Solutions. M. W. was funded by the NERC CTCD Carbon Fusion grant.


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