Abstract
Aims
As soil dries, the loss of soil hydraulic conductivity limits water supply to the leaves, which is expected to generate a nonlinear relationship between leaf water potential (ψleaf) and transpiration (E). The effect of soil drying and root properties on ψleaf and E remains elusive.
Methods
We measured E and ψleaf of pearl millet for varying E and soil moisture using a root pressure chamber. A model of water flow in soil and plant was used to fit the ψleaf (E) relationship.
Results
The relation between ψleaf and E was linear at all soil moistures. The slope of ψleaf (E) increased with decreasing soil moisture due to the decreasing soil-root conductance. The fact that the relation remained linear also in dry soils and high E is surprising. Indeed, it indicates that the gradients in soil water potential (ψsoil) were small, probably because of the large root surface (13.5 cm cm−3) active in water uptake. ψleaf at E = 0 was less negative than ψsoil, indicating a more negative osmotic potential in the xylem than in the soil.
Conclusions
We propose that the linearity between ψleaf and E and the high ψleaf (E = 0) compared to ψsoil support transpiration in drying soils.
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Change history
24 January 2020
In the original version of this article, equations 4 and 9 unfortunately contained errors
Abbreviations
- ABA:
-
abscisic acid
- LA:
-
leaf area
- LED:
-
light-emitting diode
- PDI:
-
Peters–Durner–Iden
- PVC:
-
polyvinyl chloride
- TDR:
-
time-domain reflectometry
- VPD:
-
vapor pressure deficit
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Acknowledgments
The position of G. Cai was founded by the BMBF, Project 02WIL1489 (Deutsch-Israelische Wassertechnologie-Kooperation) and Robert Bosch Foundation in the framework of the Robert Bosch Junior Professorship to MD. The authors thank Andreas Kolb for his technical support during the experiments. We also thank Dr. Jana Kholová and Dr. Tharanya Murugesan for providing seeds, the corresponding information, and the discussion.
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MAA, MD and AC acquired the funding. GC, MAA and AC conceived the experiments. GC performed the experiment, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript with contributions from MAA, MD, and AC. MZ helped with measuring the soil hydraulic properties.
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The original version of this article was revised due to incorrect data found in equations 4 and 9 and in the texts in some of the paragraphs.
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Cai, G., Ahmed, M.A., Dippold, M.A. et al. Linear relation between leaf xylem water potential and transpiration in pearl millet during soil drying. Plant Soil 447, 565–578 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-04408-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-04408-z