The centrifuge method for measuring the resistance of xylem to cavitation by water stress was modified to also account for any additional cavitation that might occur from a freeze-thaw cycle. A strong correlation was found between cavitation by freezing and mean conduit diameter. On the one extreme, a tracheid-bearing conifer and diffuse-porous angiosperms with small-diameter vessels (mean diam...

stresses caused by their freezing and thawing. A key difference between a hardy plant and a non-hardy plant is believed to be where the ice forms in freezing: inside the living cells or outside of them. If ice forms inside of cells, it is almost always fatal to them, and this is probably the principal cause of frost kill in non-hardy plants. Normally hardy tissue may be killed by moderate tempe...

Freezing is usually used for preservation and storage of biological samples; however, this process may have some adverse effects such as cell membrane damage. Aquaporin (AQP), a water channel protein, has been suggested to play some roles for cryopreservation although its molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here we show that membrane damage caused by ultra-quick freezing is rescued by the expr...

This study used air temperatures from a suite of regional climate models participating in the North American Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) together with two atmospheric reanalysis datasets to investigate changes in freezing days (defined as days with daily average temperature below freezing) likely to occur between 30-yr baseline (I97I-2000) and midcentury (2041-70) periods across...

[1] I examine the morphology of ice growth in porous media. Intermolecular forces cause premelted fluid to migrate and supply segregated ice growth (e.g., lenses) and frost heave. I account for the net effect of these microscopic interactions in a homogenized model formulated in terms of fundamental physical properties and characteristics of the porous medium that can be measured; no ad hoc par...

Ectothermic vertebrates have colonized regions that are seasonally or perpetually cold, and some species, particularly terrestrial hibernators, must cope with temperatures that fall substantially below 0°C. Survival of such excursions depends on either freeze avoidance through supercooling or freeze tolerance. Supercooling, a metastable state in which body fluids remain liquid below the equilib...

Root systems of 6-month-old, cold-hardened, container-grown black spruce seedlings (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) were exposed to 0, -5, -10, -15, -20, or -22.5 degrees C. Freezing-induced damage to fine roots, coarse roots and the whole root system was assessed by various viability tests including leakage of electrolytes, leakage of phenolic compounds, water loss, root and shoot water potentia...

Different kinds of freezing-point regulators were evaluated to expand the freezing point zone of large yellow croaker, and several treatment methods such as ordinary atmospheric pressure, vacuum environment and injection during the process of penetration were compared to reveal the relationship of diffusion velocities, diffusion time and freezing point of the large yellow croaker. Results obtai...

Vacuum freeze-dried blood is a good material for vascular grafts. However, studies on this technology are few, particularly on physical performance change of freeze-dried blood vessel at different pre-freezing rate. In our study, pig aortas were non-invasively scanned by micro-CT in each stage of freeze-drying at different pre-freezing rates, then comparing the porosity ratio and grey level und...