Abstract

YANEZ-ESPINOSA, Laura; ANGELES, Guillermo; LOPEZ-PORTILLO, Jorge  and  BARRALES, Saamantha. Anatomical wood variation of Avicennia germinans in la Mancha lagoon, Veracruz, Mexico. Bol. Soc. Bot. Méx [online]. 2009, n.85, pp.7-15. ISSN 0366-2128.

Avicennia germinans is a mangrove species with a high tolerance to salinity, but only has shown tendencies towards increase size in wood character at low salinity sites. In La Mancha lagoon, Veracruz, A. germinans is distributed in a wide salinity gradient, making interesting to analyze their anatomical character variation with respect to salinity. The results suggest that differences among sites for a) vessel tangential wall thickness, b) vessel frequency, and c) fiber tangential lumen diameter, could be attributed to an environmental effect. Increase in these three anatomical characters associated with high salinity and increased flooding exposure implies a trade-off between hydraulic efficiency and mechanical stability of wood. This suggests that global warming would affect A. germinans when sea level raise increase salinity, affecting hydraulic conductivity, reducing growth in height and leaf area.

Keywords : Anatomical variation; Avicennia germinans; mangrove; secondary xylem.

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