Tree Water Storage
Quantifying the amount and functional significance of long-term stored-water in trees
Dr. Kevan Minick maintains research experiment in Idaho, 2022.
How much water do trees store? How does water storage vary in different parts of a tree, and how does the amount of stored water vary through time? The answers to these questions are relevant to the physiological behavior of individual trees and to the behavior of larger ecosystems that interact with climate to influence the availability and quality of water for humans and our non-human relatives.
This project aims to measure the amount of water stored in different parts of trees and to determine how long water resides in each part. Duke researchers have been using deuterated water as a tracer to track water movement and storage through the sapwood and heartwood of various tree species in North Carolina and Idaho. We have been collaborating with tree ecophysiologists who are studying sap flux and other processes in the same trees used for our tracer experiments. The work involves a brand new field application of existing laser water isotope analyzers (Models L2120i and L2130i, Picarro, Inc.).
Vehicle-mounted laser water isotope analyzers in North Carolina, 2021.
In 2022, we led a two-part workshop on water isotopes at the 5th Geoscience Alliance conference at the University of Minnesota. The Geoscience Alliance aims to increase participation of Indigenous people in the earth and environmental sciences, and approximately twenty students and faculty participated in the workshop. Participants brought water samples to the conference from across the US, and they measured oxygen-18 and deuterium concentrations in their waters using a Picarro L2130i laser water isotope analyzer. Participants worked together to generate basic figures and maps using the entire group’s results.
Preparing water samples for analysis at the Geoscience Alliance Conference in Minnesota, 2022. (This particular sample required serious particle filtration prior to analysis!)
Key Duke personnel on this project include Kevan Minick and Jennie Bahramian. We are collaborating with Keith Reinhardt (Idaho State University) and Dan Johnson (University of Georgia). See our list of early conference presentations below, and keep an eye on this space for future publications.
Select Outcomes
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Bahramian J, Minick K, Reinhardt K, Johnson D, Emanuel RE (2022) “Tracing Tree Water Storage and Transport in Trembling Aspen and Douglas Fir in Idaho, USA: An In Situ Study Using Deuterated Water and CRDS Spectroscopy” Eos Transactions AGU, 103(53) Fall Meeting Suppl., Abstract B53D-02
Minick K, Bahramian J, Sprenger M, Reinhardt K, Johnson DM, Tucker L, Love D, Emanuel RE (2022) “StorAge Selection (SAS) function application to whole tree water storage and transport using enriched 2H tracing and sap flow in two tree species of North Carolina” Eos Transactions AGU, 103(53), Fall Meeting Supplement, Abstract B55G-1055
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Nothing to report yet
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