Study
Cutting xylem under tension or supersaturated with gas can generate PLC and the appearance of rapid recovery from embolism
Wheeler, J. K.; Huggett, B. A.; Tofte, A. N.; Rockwell, F. E.; Holbrook, N. M.
Plant, Cell & Environment, 2013
Stems were sampled for embolism in the standard way — cut, then measured for loss of conductivity — but the cutting itself was varied: some stems were cut while the water inside was still under tension, others were relaxed first, others were cut under water.
- Studied in
- Acer rubrum, Quercus rubra
- Sample size
- stem segments cut under contrasting conditions
Cutting a stem while its xylem was under tension introduced air that had not been there before, producing a measured embolism that the intact plant did not have. Samples relaxed before cutting showed far less. Much of the apparent daily cycle of embolism and overnight "repair" tracked the sampling method rather than the plant.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Standard destructive sampling can generate the very embolism it measures, so reports of rapid refilling should be treated with caution.
How NatureHQ reads it
This is why NatureHQ does not tell readers that trees repair air bubbles overnight, despite that being the tidier story. A large part of the evidence for daily refilling came from a measurement that could manufacture the thing it was measuring. Some refilling in some species remains plausible and is actively studied; what collapsed was the confidence, not the question. It is a good example of a field correcting itself on a methodological detail invisible from outside.
- Two temperate broadleaved species; the size of the artefact will differ in conifers and in long-vesselled species.
- Shows that the artefact exists and is large, not that every reported instance of refilling is an artefact.
- Non-destructive imaging methods that avoid cutting have their own limitations and are not assessed here.
The bubbles that were made by the knife
Do trees repair the air bubbles in their plumbing overnight, or does cutting the sample create them?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Wiley journalsPublished in a Wiley journal.
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-30.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-30.