Causes and consequences of pronounced variation in the isotope composition of plant xylem water

De Deurwaerder, Hannes P. T.; Visser, Marco D.; Detto, Matteo; Boeckx, Pascal; Meunier, Félicien; Kuehnhammer, Kathrin; Magh, Ruth-Kristina; Marshall, John D.; Wang, Lixin; Zhao, Liangju; Verbeeck, Hans

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4853-2020

BG | Articles | Volume 17, issue 19

Biogeosciences, 17, 4853–4870, 2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4853-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

BG | Articles | Volume 17, issue 19

Research article 13 Oct 2020

Research article | 13 Oct 2020

Causes and consequences of pronounced variation in the isotope composition of plant xylem water

Hannes P. T. De Deurwaerder et al.

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4853-2020-supplement

Model code and software

Github code upload on Zenodo De Deurwaerder et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3988709

Short summary

The depths at which plants take up water is challenging to observe directly. To do so, scientists have relied on measuring the isotopic composition of xylem water as this provides information on the water’s source. Our work shows that this isotopic composition changes throughout the day, which complicates the interpretation of the water’s source and has been currently overlooked. We build a model to help understand the origin of these composition changes and their consequences for science.

The depths at which plants take up water is challenging to observe directly. To do so,...