“…However, the difficulty about Lpr measurement can be related to the expectation of normalized data per unit root area (m²) or root biomass (g), as usually calculated in studies of plant water deficit (Rodríguez-Gamir et al, 2015;Ding et al, 2019). But unlike plants exposed to Al, in which the root system does not grow (Delhaize & Ryan 1995;Kopittke et al, 2008;Horst et al, 2010;Fig. 1d, e) and the roots are anatomically damaged (Batista et al, 2013;Banhos et al, 2016;Silva et al, 2019), roots of plants under water deficiency grow significantly more, including the involvement of ABA (Saab et al, 1990) and are not anatomically damaged. In addition, in water deficiency studies, water availability is limited in the substrate/soil, whereas plants tested in Al toxicity studies are, usually, grown directly in nutrient solutions, where water availability is unlimited, like in the present study.…”