Linking sap flow in tree boles to plant transpiration continues to be a fundamental and practical research problem in physiological ecology and forest hydrology. Many models have been proposed to describe water movement within trees with varying degrees of success. The prevailing resistance–capacitance (RC)-circuit models have the advantage of being easy to implement. However, RC models are ord...

Water use efficiency (WUE) is a key indicator to assess ecosystem adaptation to water stress. Rain use efficiency (RUE) is usually used as a proxy for WUE due to lack of transpiration data. Furthermore, RUE based on aboveground primary productivity (RUEANPP) is used to evaluate whole plant water use because root production data is often missing as well. However, it is controversial as to whethe...

Suboptimal N or P availability and cool temperatures all decrease apparent hydraulic conductance (L) of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) roots. The interaction between nutrient status and root temperature was tested in seedlings grown in nutrient solutions. The depression of L (calculated as the ratio of transpiration rate to absolute value of leaf water potential [Psi(w)]) by nutrient stress dep...

Plants respond to many environmental changes by rapidly adjusting their hydraulic conductivity and transpiration rate, thereby optimizing water-use efficiency and preventing damage due to low water potential. A multiple-load-cell apparatus, time-series analysis of the measured data, and residual low-pass filtering methods were used to monitor continuously and analyse transpiration of potted tom...

The goal of this study was to determine the effects of atmospheric demand on both plant water relations and daily whole-tree water balance across the upper limit of a cloud forest at the mean base height of the trade wind inversion in the tropical trade wind belt. We measured the microclimate and water relations (sap flow, water potential, stomatal conductance, pressure-volume relations) of Met...

For most angiosperms, producing and maintaining flowers is critical to sexual reproduction, yet little is known about the physiological processes involved in maintaining flowers throughout anthesis. Among extant species, flowers of the genus Calycanthus have the highest hydraulic conductance and vein densities of species measured to date, yet they can wilt by late morning under hot conditions. ...

For a plant of average spectral properties and average diffusion resistance (2 sec/cm), diurnal variations in the energy dissipated by reradiation, convection, and transpiration have been explicitly calculated and plotted for certain environmental conditions as measured at St. Paul, Minnesota. These conditions represent the environments of characteristic types of days and of characteristic type...