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Plant Physiology 68:44-47 (1981)
© 1981 American Society of Plant Biologists

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Articles

A Split-Root Technique for Measuring Root Water Potential

Kingsley B. Adeoye1 and Stephen L. Rawlins

Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States Salinity Laboratory, 4500 Glenwood Drive, Riverside, California 92501

Water encounters various resistances in moving along a path of decreasing potential energy from the soil through the plant to the atmosphere. The reported relative magnitudes of these pathway resistances vary widely and often these results are conflicting. One reason for such inconsistency is the difficulty in measuring the potential drop across various segments of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. The measurement of water potentials at the soil-root interface and in the root xylem of a transpiring plant remains a challenging problem.

In the divided root experiment reported here, the measured water potential of an enclosed, nonabsorbing branch of the root system of young corn (Bonanza) plants to infer the water potential of the remaining roots growing in soil was used. The selected root branch of the seedling was grown in a specially constructed Teflon test tube into which a screen-enclosed thermocouple psychrometer was inserted and sealed to monitor the root's water potential. The root and its surrounding atmosphere were assumed to be in vapor equilibrium.

1 Former graduate student, Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of California at Riverside, and Supervisory Soil Scientist, United States Salinity Laboratory, Riverside, respectively. Current address for senior author is: Department of Soil Science, Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, P.M.B. 1044, Samaru - Zaria, Nigeria.




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Q. d. J. van Lier, K. Metselaar, and J. C. van Dam
Root Water Extraction and Limiting Soil Hydraulic Conditions Estimated by Numerical Simulation
Vadose Zone J., November 20, 2006; 5(4): 1264 - 1277.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Copyright © 1981 by the American Society of Plant Biologists