Abstract
The pruned part of a beech (Fagus sylvatica) branch was imaged by a 3D spin-echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique to visualize change in structure and water content in the tissues. Proton density-weighted MR images of intact tissues confirmed high moisture content (MC) associated with high MRI signal in the pith, xylem rays and earlywood vessels, as well as in the cambial zone with current annual xylem and phloem increment. MRI images derived from the 3D datasets showed a previously unreported moisture-related structural response of the beech branch to wounding. An extensive wound tissue with a high MRI signal at the wound edge was a conspicuous new structure clearly visualized by 3D MRI. MRI revealed that the xylem at the wound was dehydrated in a cone-shaped pattern extending approximately 4.5 mm deep into the branch. Dehydration was delimited from the underlying sound wood by a layer, corresponding to the reaction zone, of tissue with a high MRI signal and hence high moisture content. Moisture content of these reaction zones in beech determined by MRI were greater than in healthy wood by factors of 1.3–1.8. Accordingly, in the margins of wounded beech wood not only cell wall alterations can be observed, but also an intensive water accumulation, which is probably an integral part of the protective mechanism for the underlying sound wood.
©2008 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
