Chapter 2 The Hydraulic Architecture of Conifers Uwe G. Hacke, Barbara Lachenbruch, Jarmila Pittermann, Stefan Mayr, Jean-Christophe Domec, and Paul J. Schulte 1 Introduction Conifers survive in diverse and sometimes extreme environments (Fig. 2.1a–f). Piñon-juniper communities are found in semi-arid environments, receiving ca. 400 mm of yearly precipitation (Linton et al. 1998), which is less than half the U.G. Hacke (*) Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 442 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6G 2E3 e-mail:
[email protected] B. Lachenbruch Department of Wood Science and Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR USA e-mail:
[email protected] J. Pittermann Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA e-mail:
[email protected] S. Mayr Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartestr. 15, Innsbruck 6020, Austria e-mail:
[email protected] J.-C. Domec Bordeaux Sciences Agro—INRA, UMR ISPA, 1 cours du Général de Gaulle, Gradignan 33175, France Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA e-mail:
[email protected] P.J. Schulte School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4004, USA e-mail:
[email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 39 U. Hacke (ed.), Functional and Ecological Xylem Anatomy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-15783-2_2 Fig. 2.1 Conifers growing in diverse habitats. (a, b) Sequoiadendron giganteum in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California (photos: B.