V

Water Relations and

Isotopic Composition
Hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in stem waters are revealing new insights
into the specific soil layers from which plants extract moisture. As such,
analyses of xylem sap provide a nondestructive means of assessing soil-
plant water relations and effective rooting zones. In this section, Dawson
provides a synthesis of that topic and an examination of how these observa-
tions relate to ecological patterning. In a related chapter, Thorburn and
Walker examine the specific water uptake patterns for Australian eucalyp-
tus, showing that these trees differentiate between ground and surface
waters with counter-intuitive results. Lin and Sternberg provide evidence
for a contrasting pattern (salt-stressed mangroves) to that described by
Dawson and by Thorburn and Walker, indicating the utility of analyzing
both hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in water. In the final chapter, Yakir et
al. provide experimental evidence for the linkages between the oxygen
isotope composition of leaf water and carbon dioxide and of the utility of
such information for analyzing gas exchange processes.