DOI: 10.5061/dryad.gtht76hvn
title: Desiccation tolerance of Cissus quadrangularis assessed in a greenhouse experiment

description: Cissus quadrangularis is a succulent vine that degrades forests where it
 is not native by growing over trees and causing them to break or by
 impeding regeneration. Methods for its control have been tried but no
 satisfactory approach has been found yet. Thus, we carried out an
 experiment to analyze how much desiccation Cissus can endure before losing
 its ability to grow when rehydrated, using fragments of 0.5, 1, 2, and 3
 internodes to test if desiccation tolerance was affected by fragment
 length. Additionally, we tested whether chemical treatment to break down
 the cuticle facilitated desiccation. We found out that Cissus remains
 viable after losing up to 80% of its weight, with shorter fragments losing
 viability at 70% weight loss. Acetone treatment did not accelerate
 desiccation time. Cissus has a remarkable tolerance to desiccation.
 Therefore, management strategies should ensure complete desiccation of
 Cissus fragments to prevent its regrowth. Reducing fragments to smaller
 sizes could amplify the effectiveness of control measures, but risks of
 increasing propagule numbers should be considered.
description: This data is a product of two controlled experiments in the
 greenhouse. The available data is the data gathered during the course of
 the experiments. The data has not been transformed.
description: # Cissus quadrangularis desiccation experiment
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gtht76hvn](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gtht76hvn) This dataset contains two files with the results for two experiments. 1.The first file "desiccation" contains the results for a dessication experiment, to investigate C. quadrangularis resistance to desiccation and if that resistance is a function of fragment length. We took Cissus fragments of different lengths (0.5, 1, 2, or 3 internodes) and desiccated them at room temperature in the greenhouse and weighed them every week to monitor their mass loss. We weighed them until they reached a certain mass loss category (measured as a percentage of mass loss). We then repotted Cissus and assesed their viability. We considered that a cissus fragement was viable if it had shoot or root growth. We found that cissus fragments remained viable even after losing 80% of their mass content.  2.The second file "acetone" contains the results of a second experiment in which we investigated if acetone could accelerate Cissus dehidration. In this experiment, 50 Cissus fragments of 1 internode in lenght were treated with acetone (n = 25) or with water (n = 25) as a control. We dehydrated them in an oven at 50 degrees Celsius. We recorded the number of days it took each fragment to completely dehydrate (reach a stable mass), and compared that number of days, not finding any difference between water and acetone.  ## Description of the data and file structure A. File "desiccation" All the data are contained in columns/rows and each row represents an individual Cissus fragment.  The following is a description of the columns: 1. Individual: a unique identifier of each Cissus fragment 2. a/b: indicates if the internode half is the upper half (a) or lower half (b). This column only applies for the half internode category. All the other categories should have an na, because fragments with 1, 2, or 3 internodes do not have upper or lower halves. 3. Internodes: this column describes how many internodes long each Cissus fragment was. The possible values are 0.5, 1, 2, or 3 4. Lenght1: lenght of the first internode in mm 5. Length2: length of the second internode in mm. Only applies for Cissus fragments of 2 or 3 internodes. For Cissus fragments of 1 internode, this cell appears as na.  6. Lenght3: lenght of the third internode in mm. Only applies for Cissus fragments of 3 internodes. For Cissus fragments of 1 or 2 internodes, this cell appears as na.  7. Weight: initial mass of the Cissus fragment in grams 8. Final_weight: Final mass of the Cissus fragment in grams, once it had spent some time dehydrating in the greenhouse 9. mass_loss_category: percentage of weight loss that the Cissus fragment belongs to. This category was assigned after calculating the mass loss category for each fragment as (initial mass-final mass/initial mass)*100 10. Final_number_of \_nodes: number of nodes that Cissus had after growing again in pots. Can be used as a measurement of Cissus growth 11. Final_internode_lenght: Total lenght of the internodes in milimmeters. The letter "d" indicates plants that died during the course of the experiment.  12. Root_lenght: Total lenght of the longest root in milimmeters. The letter "d" indicates plants that died during the course of the experiment.  13. Viable: Binary classification of the Cissus plants as viable (1) or non viable (0). A plant was scored viable if it exhibited shoot or root growth.  B. File "acetone" All the data are contained in columns/rows and each row represents an individual Cissus fragment.  The following is a description of the columns: 1. Fragment: A unique number identifier of each Cissus fragment 2. Treatment: Identifies the type of treatment that the Cissus fragment received. It can be either "water" or "acetone" 3. Days: This column contains the number of days that it took the Cissus fragments to loose all their water content.  ## Sharing/Access information This is original data derived from experiments in a greenhouse at the University of Minnesota.