Dipartamento Territorio e Sistemi Agro-Forestali, Università degli Studi di Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy.
Oecologia. 2011 Feb;165(2):271-4; discussion 275. doi: 10.1007/s00442-010-1871-2. Epub 2010 Dec 12.
A recent paper by Meinzer et al. (Oecologia, 2010, 164:287-296) has reviewed the topic of conflicts between hydraulic efficiency and safety in vascular plants. The authors raised the question that reliable interpretations of results on the mechanisms behind this trade-off requires an integrated approach that considers the variations in hydraulic traits throughout the entire plant and between different individuals, species and environments. Nonetheless, the literature review was only partial. Here, we discuss that an important feature of the whole tree xylem architecture, conduit tapering, is one of traits that must be considered when planning analyses of hydraulic properties of plants and interpreting the results.
迈因策尔等人最近的一篇论文（《生态学》，2010，164：287-296）综述了维管植物中水力效率与安全性之间冲突的问题。作者提出，要对这种权衡背后的机制进行可靠的解释，就需要采用一种综合的方法，考虑整个植物以及不同个体、物种和环境中水力特征的变化。然而，文献综述并不全面。在这里，我们认为，整棵树木质部结构的一个重要特征，即导管变细，是在规划植物水力特性分析和解释结果时必须考虑的特征之一。
