The Extension of Plant Roots Into Dry Soil

Hunter, Albert S.; Kelley, Omer J.

doi:10.1104/pp.21.4.445

Cited by 32 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…This view is partially supported by other evidence that indicates a plant with a portion of its root system in moist soil can lose water to a dry soil through another portion of its roots (1,3,4,7,15). Breazeale and Crider (1934) suggest that an accurate measurement of water lost in this way would reveal a thin zone of relatively moist soil adjacent to the root, however, it is generally thought that the moisture content of the dry soil is raised only to approximately the wilting percentage (9).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…The transfer of materials from roots to the soil has received considerable attention (1,3,4,7,8,15), yet the transfer of materials from one root to another has received little study, despite the fact that the roots of most plants intimately grow together in soil. That material transfer between plants can occur was demonsrated by the early work of Breazeale (3) and Breazeale and Crider (4) in which wheat seedlings survived on water obtained from the roots of other plants.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Moisture Transfer between Plants through Intertwined Root Systems.

Bormann

1957

Plant Physiol.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Moisture Transfer between Plants through Intertwined Root Systems.

Bormann

1957

Plant Physiol.

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“…However, the original records show that more than half of these roots were observed to pass within i mm of already existing roots, where the soil would presumably be at least as dry as the average. There is some previous evidence that roots can grow in soil drier than the permanent wilting point, from studies on maize by Breazeale (1930) and Hunter and Kelley (1946). The plants used by these authors always had some roots in moist soil.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ROOT GROWTH OF FLAX (LINUM USITATISSIMUM) AND SOIL WATER POTENTIAL

Newman

1966

New Phytologist

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SUMMARYFlax plants were grown in vertical cylinders of soil contained in polyethylene tubing. Root growth was estimated from the number of roots crossing vertical and horizontal lines on the tube surface. After the plants were 29 days old, some of the soil cylinders received no more water, and root growth and soil water content in each 10 cm layer of soil were determined at 2-day intervals. When a graph of root growth against soil water potential is plotted, points from each 10 cm layer fall approximately on the same concave curve. A marked reduction in root growth first occurred at -7 bars total water potential. At -15 bars, root growth was 20°/ or less of the rate before drying, but some root growth occurred in soil drier than -20 bars. The results suggest that root growth in each layer was not influenced by water potential elsewhere in the plant.

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“…It can be argued that seedlings may be less prone to the development of gradients due to increased root growth and their high plasticity in growth in drying soil. However, a more extended root system can circumvent negative effects of steep gradients in part of the root system, because roots aie hydrodynamically interconnected and can compensate by taking up water from wetter sites, for example from the subsoil (Hunter & Kelley 1946;Slavikova 1967; Schmidhalter ef a/, 1992b), This situation may thus differ from that for nutrients, which are primarily located in the top soil, where there is less chance of avoiding the negative effects of nutrient depletion around roots. Even if gradients exist in part of the root system they may no longer be related to the plant water status, because root activity has stopped, for example at very dry sites.…”

Section: General Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The gradient between pre‐dawn rhizoplane and bulk soil matric potentials, and its relation to the pre‐dawn root and leaf water potentials of four species

Schmidhalter

1997

Plant Cell & Environment

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Uptake of soil water by plants may result in significant gradients between bulk soil and soil in the vicinity of roots. Few experimental studies of water potential gradients in close proximity to roots, and no studies on the relationship of water potential gradients to the root and leaf water potentials, have been conducted. The occurrence and importance of pre-dawn gradients in the soil and their relation to the pre-dawn root and leaf water potentials were investigated with seedlings of four species. Pre-germinated seeds were grown without watering for 7 and ltd in a silt loam soil with initial soil matric potentials of-0-02, -0-t and -0-22 MPa. Significant gradients, independent of the species, were observed only at pre-dawn soil matric potentials lower than -0-25 MPa; the initial soil matric potentials were > -0-t MPa. At an initial bulk soil matric potential of -0-22 MPa, a steep gradient between bulk and rhizoplane soil was observed after 7 d for maize (Zea mays L. cv. Issa) and sunflower {Heliaiithus annuiis L. cv. Nanus), in contrast to barley {Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Athos) and wheat {Triticum aestivum L. cv. Kolibri). Predawn root water potentials were usually about the same as the bulk soil matric potential and were higher than the rhizoplane soil matric potential. Pre-dawn root and leaf water potentials tended to be much higher than rhizoplane soil matric potentials when the latter were lower than -()-5 MPa. It is concluded that plants tend to become equilibrated overnight with the wetter bulk soil or with wetter zones in the bulk soil. Plants can thus circumvent negative effects of localized steep pre-dawn soil matric potential gradients. This may be of considerable importance for water uptake and growth in drying soil.

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The Extension of Plant Roots Into Dry Soil

Cited by 32 publications

References 4 publications

Moisture Transfer between Plants through Intertwined Root Systems.

Moisture Transfer between Plants through Intertwined Root Systems.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ROOT GROWTH OF FLAX (LINUM USITATISSIMUM) AND SOIL WATER POTENTIAL

The gradient between pre‐dawn rhizoplane and bulk soil matric potentials, and its relation to the pre‐dawn root and leaf water potentials of four species

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