Plant transpiration, a process of water movement through a plant and its evaporation from aerial parts especially leaves, consumes a large component of the total continental precipitation (≈48%) and significantly influences global water distribution and climate. To date, various chemical and/or biological explorations have been made to tune the transpiration but with uncertain environmental ris...

Alpine and northern treelines are primarily controlled by low temperatures. However, little is known about the impact of low soil temperature on tree transpiration at treelines. We aim to test the hypothesis that in cold-limited forests, the main limiting factors for tree transpiration switch from low soil temperature before summer solstice to atmospheric evaporative demand after summer solstic...

7 [1] Tropical rainforests are known to exhibit low intrasea8 sonal precipitation variability compared with oceanic areas 9 with similar mean precipitation in observations and models. 10 In the present study, the potential role of transpiration for 11 this difference in precipitation variability is investigated 12 using the National Center for Atmospheric Research 13 (NCAR) atmospheric general ...

The water permeability of the leaves of three deciduous plants (Acer campestre, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus petraea) and two evergreen plants (Hedera helix, Ilex aquifolium) was analysed in order to assess its role as a mechanism of drought resistance. Cuticular permeances were determined by measurement of the water loss through adaxial, astomatous leaf surfaces. Minimum conductances after complet...

In the preceding communication' it was shown that phenylmercuric acetate sprayed upon detached leaves brings about closure of the stomata and thereby diminishes the diffusion of water from the leaves and of CO2 into the leaves. In 9 out of 11 experiments, induced closure of stomata reduced transpiration relatively more than CO2 assimilation as predicted from diffusion theory. This work led to e...

Fruit water balance is determined by entry of sap through xylem and phloem, and losses due to back̄ow from fruits to other organs, and to transpiration. The latter, which may vary according to growing and climatic conditions, plays a signi®cant role in fruit water balance. To better understand and predict tomato fruit transpiration, measurements of the transpiration rate of shaded and nonshaded ...

Juvenile woody desert perennials often exhibit higher rates of transpiration than co-occurring adults, which may facilitate establishment by increasing carbon gain when water is plentiful, but increase the risk of hydraulic failure during drought. We tested three hypotheses regarding the role of hydraulic limits in two size classes of Larrea tridentata: 1) small plants grow faster and use more ...

The terrestrial hydrological cycle is strongly influenced by transpiration--water loss through the stomatal pores of leaves. In this report we present studies showing that the energy content of radiation absorbed by the leaf influences stomatal control of transpiration. This observation is at odds with current concepts of how stomata sense and control transpiration, and we suggest an alternativ...

Recent evidence from leaves and stems indicates that gradients in water potential (psi(w)) necessary for water movement through growing tissues are larger than previously assumed. Because growth is sensitive to tissue psi(w) and the behavior of these gradients has not been investigated in transpiring plants, we examined the water status of all the growing and mature vegetative tissues of maize ...