Abstract
The Pneumatron device measures gas diffusion kinetics in the xylem of plants. The device provides an easy, low-cost, and powerful tool for research on plant water relations and gas exchange. Here, we describe in detail how to construct and operate this device to estimate embolism resistance of angiosperm xylem, and how to analyse pneumatic data. Simple and more elaborated ways of constructing a Pneumatron are shown, either using wires, a breadboard, or a printed circuit board. The instrument is based on an open-source hardware and software system, which allows users to operate it in an automated or semi-automated way. A step-by-step manual and a troubleshooting section are provided. An excel spreadsheet and an R-script are also presented for fast and easy data analysis. This manual aims at helping users to avoid common mistakes, such as unstable measurements of the minimum and maximum amount of gas discharged from xylem tissue, which has major consequences for estimating embolism resistance. Major advantages of the Pneumatron device include its automated and accurate measurements of gas diffusion rates, including highly precise measurements of the gas volume in intact, embolised conduits. It is currently unclear if the method can also be applied to woody monocots, gymnosperm species that possess torus-margo pit membranes, or to herbaceous species.
Highlights
The Pneumatron is a device that allows automated measurements of the gas diffusion kinetics in plant xylem tissue (Pereira et al, 2020a)
The construction manual, the operational details, and the software presented in this paper provide relevant and important information to users who want to apply the Pneumatron to estimate xylem embolism resistance
Vulnerability curves based on pneumatic measurements have been compared in various studies against various alternative methods (Pereira et al, 2016; Bittencourt et al, 2018; Zhang et al, 2018; Jansen et al, 2020; Guan et al, 2021; Paligi et al, 2021)
Summary
The Pneumatron is a device that allows automated measurements of the gas diffusion kinetics in plant xylem tissue (Pereira et al, 2020a). A partial vacuum is pulled in a discharge tube to extract gas from xylem tissue of a cut branch, petiole, or root during less than 1 min (Pereira et al, 2016; Bittencourt et al, 2018). The main advantages of the Pneumatron are its automated approach and high speed in milliseconds of creating a partial vacuum, taking pressure measurements, storing data, and opening or closing the valves between the discharge tube and the atmosphere. For a general understanding of the manual pneumatic method, we refer to earlier papers (Pereira et al, 2016, 2020a; Bittencourt et al, 2018; Zhang et al, 2018; Jansen et al, 2020)
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