**Meet the editor**

Prof. Vanderlei Rodrigues da Silva graduated in Agronomy from the Federal University of Santa Maria (1996). He received his MSc degree in Agronomy from the Federal University of Santa Maria (1999) and Ph.D. in Agronomy from the Federal University of Santa Maria (2003). Prof. Vanderlei Rodrigues da Silva is currently assistant professor at the Federal University of Santa

Maria, Tutor Group PET Agronomy, Frederick and coordinator of the Agronomy, UFSM-FW. He has experience in Agronomy with emphasis on Soil Physics, acting on the following topics: soil compaction, tillage, soil density, soil management and soil mechanical parameters.

Contents

**Preface VII**

**Indicators 55**

Yongfu Xu

**of Rocks 135**

**Solute Transport 155** Bill X. Hu and Juxiu Tong

Chapter 1 **Hydraulic Efficiency and Safety of Xylem Sap Flow in Relation**

Chapter 2 **Role of Hydraulic Conductivity Uncertainties in Modeling Water Flow through Forest Watersheds 33**

Paulo Leonel Libardi and Flávia Carvalho Silva

Chapter 5 **Calibration of a New Device to Measure Water Content**

Maria Clementina Caputo and Rita Masciale

Chapter 7 **Detection of Permeable Bodies: From Laboratory**

Jean Luc Mari and Béatrice Yven

Chapter 6 **Data Assimilation Application to the Subsurface Flow and**

**Measurements to Seismic Measurements 187**

Chapter 3 **Eveluation of the Quality of the Soil From Soil Physical-Hydrical**

**to Water Stress in Woody Plants 1** Katarzyna Marciszewska and Mirela Tulik

Marie-France Jutras and Paul A. Arp

Chapter 4 **Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity of Fractal-Textured Soils 69**

## Contents

## **Preface XI**


Preface

ry Measurements to Seismic Measurements

The target audience comprises scholars and specialists in the field.

This book is a research publication that covers original research on developments within the "Hydraulic Conductivity " field of study. The book is a collection of reviewed scholarly con‐ tributions written by different authors. Each scholarly contribution represents a chapter and each chapter is complete in itself but related to the major topics and objectives. The chapters included in the book are: Eveluation of the Quality of the Soil From Soil Physical-Hydrical Indicators, Hydraulic Efficiency and Safety of Xylem Sap Flow in Relation to Water Stress in Woody Plants, Role of Hydraulic Conductivity Uncertainties in Modeling Water Flow Through Forest Watersheds, Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity of Fractal-Textured Soils, Calibration of a New Device to Measure Water Content of Rocks, Calibration of a New De‐ vice to Measure Water Content of Rocks and Detection of Permeable Bodies: From Laborato‐

> **Prof. Vanderlei Rodrigues da Silva** Coordenador do Curso de Agronomia

UFSM, campus de Frederico Westphalen, RS, Brazil

## Preface

This book is a research publication that covers original research on developments within the "Hydraulic Conductivity " field of study. The book is a collection of reviewed scholarly con‐ tributions written by different authors. Each scholarly contribution represents a chapter and each chapter is complete in itself but related to the major topics and objectives. The chapters included in the book are: Eveluation of the Quality of the Soil From Soil Physical-Hydrical Indicators, Hydraulic Efficiency and Safety of Xylem Sap Flow in Relation to Water Stress in Woody Plants, Role of Hydraulic Conductivity Uncertainties in Modeling Water Flow Through Forest Watersheds, Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity of Fractal-Textured Soils, Calibration of a New Device to Measure Water Content of Rocks, Calibration of a New De‐ vice to Measure Water Content of Rocks and Detection of Permeable Bodies: From Laborato‐ ry Measurements to Seismic Measurements

The target audience comprises scholars and specialists in the field.

**Prof. Vanderlei Rodrigues da Silva** Coordenador do Curso de Agronomia UFSM, campus de Frederico Westphalen, RS, Brazil

**Chapter 1**

**Hydraulic Efficiency and Safety of Xylem Sap Flow in**

Trees as long-living organisms can be looked as the archives of ecological events recorded in the annual rings of wood. These can play an important role in studying and reconstruction of climate variation. The ability of a tree genotype to adjust the phenotype over the life of a tree is a consequence of short-term to long-term physiological responses to environmental changes, the ability which can be used to link environment with wood structure. The ana‐ tomical features of tree rings such as conduits size and density, cell wall thickness and the share of different tissues are sources of information on global environmental changes throughout the last millennium and on the strategies of species' responses to the evaluation

The aim of this chapter is to present the up to date knowledge about the changes in woody plant hydraulics in response to water stress. The understanding of drought impact on plant water conducting systems structure and functioning and their possible adjustments becomes especially essential in respect to climate change projections for Central Europe predicting lower summer precipitation combined with prolonged drought periods. The issue of struc‐ tural basis for water flow in wood of woody plants and the methods of its measurement and assessment are presented and the adjustments to water stress in short- and long-time scale

Wood anatomy can be studied in the view of different disciplines e.g. technical applications, tree pathology, ecology, dendrochronology but also in terms of hydraulics as a specific

> © 2013 Marciszewska and Tulik; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Relation to Water Stress in Woody Plants**

of the impact of predicted climate change on vegetation dynamics.

as well as at different levels of woody plant organizations discussed.

**2. Structural basis for woody plants hydraulics**

hydrosystem based on cells with lumina filled with water.

Katarzyna Marciszewska and Mirela Tulik

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/56656

**1. Introduction**
