least resistance. But when water stress sets in and xylem tensionincreases, it will be the widest vessels that are the most vulnerableto cavitation. The narrower vessels and the tracheids then can takeover the function of water conduction; the same high tensions whichcause vessels to cavitate also overcome the resistance in the narrowerconducting cells. In tracheids, any cavitation event is confined to onesingle cell, and tracheids are also relatively narrow, so they are theleast vulnerable to water stress.The movement of cohesive water columns in the xylem undertranspiration pull may thus be buffered against serious disruptionfrom cavitation by excess capacity; by the regular annual replace-ment of old xylem by new in perennials; by refilling of air-filledvessels by root pressures, by capillarity and by pressure from adjacentliving cells; by the bypassing of airlocks in cell walls; and by thepresence in xylem of tracheids and narrow vessels, which are lesssusceptible to cavitation. There is not enough evidence for acceptingalternative theories for the ascent of sap which deny the existence ofhigh tensions in the xylem. Nevertheless, data from the pressure-probe measurements, and other apparently anomalous observations,are drawing attention to the possible functions of the living cells ofthe xylem, and of the neighbouring phloem, in water movement.
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