Irrigation with primary wastewater alters wood anatomy and composition in willow Salix miyabeana SX67

Ahmed Jerbi; Joan Laur; Kevin Lajoie; Pierre-Paul Gallant; Simon Barnabé; Frederic E Pitre; Michel Labrecque

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1087035

Irrigation with primary wastewater alters wood anatomy and composition in willow Salix miyabeana SX67

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Mar 2:14:1087035. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1087035. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ahmed Jerbi¹, Joan Laur^{1

2}, Kevin Lajoie³, Pierre-Paul Gallant⁴, Simon Barnabé³, Frederic E Pitre^{1

2}, Michel Labrecque^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
² Montreal Botanical Garden, Research and Development Division, Montréal, QC, Canada.
³ Institut d'Innovations sur les Écomatériaux, Écoproduits et Écoénergies à base de biomasse (I2E3), Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada.
⁴ École de technologie supérieure, Université du Québec, Montréal, QC, Canada.

Abstract

Traditional treatment of wastewaters is a burden for local governments. Using short rotation coppice willow (SRCW) as vegetal filter has several environmental and economic benefits. Here, we investigated the effect of primary wastewater irrigation on wood structure and composition of the willow cultivar Salix miyabeana 'SX67' following two years of growth. Compared to unirrigated plants (UI), stem sections of plants irrigated with primary wastewater (WWD) showed an unexpected decrease of hydraulic conductance (K_S) associated with a decrease in vessel density but not vessel diameter. The majority (86%) of vessels had diameters range groups [20-30[, [30-40[and [40-50[µm and contributed to > 75% of theoretical K_S, while the group class [50-60[µm (less than 10% of vessels) still accounted for > 20% of total K_S regardless irrigation treatments. WWD significantly alters the chemical composition of wood with an increase of glucan content by 9 to 16.4% and a decrease of extractives by 35.3 to 36.4% when compared to UI or to plants irrigated with potable water (PW). The fertigation did also increase the proportion of the tension wood which highly correlated with glucan content. In the context of energetic transition and mitigation of climate change, such results are of high interest since WWD effectively permit the phytofiltration of large amounts of organic contaminated effluents without impairing SRCW physiology.

Keywords: cell wall composition; hydraulic conductance; phytofiltration; sustainable biomass; wastewater; willow.

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by grant by NSERC Strategic Project Grant (STPGP-506680-17), NSERC CRD Grant (RDCPJ476673-14), NSERC Discovery Grant (FEP RGPIN-2017-05452), National Research Canada Forest Innovation Program Grant (CWFC1718-018 and CWFC1920-104) and NRCan Opportunity Fund (3000660151).