The sessile lifestyle of plants constrains their ability to acquire mobile nutrients such as nitrate. Whereas proliferation of roots might help in the longer term, nitrate-rich patches can shift rapidly with mass flow of water in the soil. A mechanism that allows roots to follow and capture this source of mobile nitrogen would be highly desirable. Here, we report that variation in nitrate conce...

  The aim of the present study was to determine effects of artificial drought stress on the characteristics of germination and seedling growth in bread wheat cultivars. The material of experiment consisted of seeds obtained from eight bread wheat cultivars with different response to drought (Alpu 2001, Sultan 95, Konya 2002, Eser as sensitive cultivars; Karahan 99, Tosunbey, Kate A1 as resista...

As plant roots take up water and the soil dries, water depletion is expected to occur in the vicinity of roots, the so called rhizosphere. However, recent experiments showed that the rhizosphere of lupines was wetter than the bulk soil during the drying period. Surprisingly, the rhizosphere remained temporarily dry after irrigation. Such water dynamics in the rhizosphere can be explained by the...

In a runoff irrigation system using levelled basins, the water uptake patterns of different plant species (Acacia saligna (Labill.) H. L. Wend. and Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.) with contrasting root and shoot development were compared. Rainfall amounts during 1995 led to enough runoff water for realizing two cropping cycles. The amount of irrigation water was sufficient to fill the moisture-de...

The influence of low temperature in the root zone on water uptake in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud.) was studied under laboratory conditions. To remove soil hydraulic influences, two-year-old seedlings were transferred to solution cultures and maintained in temperature controlled water baths. Short term measurements of leaf conductance, leaf water potential and tritiated water m...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Soil phosphorus (P) solubility declines sharply when a flooded soil drains, and an important component of rice (Oryza sativa) adaptation to rainfed lowland environments is the ability to absorb and utilize P under such conditions. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that rice cultivars differ in their P responses between water regimes because P uptake mechanisms...

To assess how the effects of drought could be better captured in process-based models, this study simulated and contrasted two water uptake approaches in Scots pine and Scots pine-Sessile oak stands. The first approach consisted of an empirical function for root water uptake (WU1). The second approach was based on differences of soil water potential along a soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (WU2)...