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Simulating transpiration and leaf water relations in response to heterogeneous soil moisture and different stomatal control mechanisms

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Abstract

Aims

Stomata can close to avoid cavitation under decreased soil water availability. This closure can be triggered by hydraulic (‘H’) and/or chemical signals (‘C’, ‘H + C’). By combining plant hydraulic relations with a model for stomatal conductance, including chemical signalling, our aim was to derive direct relations that link soil water availability, expressed as fraction of roots in dry soil (fdry), to transpiration reduction.

Methods

We used the mechanistic soil-root water flow model R-SWMS to verify this relation. Virtual split root experiments were simulated, comparing horizontal and vertical splits with varying fdry and different strengths of stomatal regulation by chemical and hydraulic signals.

Results

Transpiration reduction predicted by the direct relations was in good agreement with numerical simulations. For small enough potential transpiration and large enough root hydraulic conductivity and stomatal sensitivity to chemical signalling isohydric plant behaviour originates from H + C control whereas anisohydric behaviour emerges from C control. For C control the relation between transpiration reduction and fdry becomes independent of transpiration rate whereas H + C control results in stronger reduction for higher transpiration rates.

Conclusion

Direct relations that link effective soil water potential and leaf water potential can describe different stomatal control resulting in contrasting behaviour.

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Acknowledgments

This work is a contribution of the Transregio Collaborative Research Center 32, Patterns in Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Systems: Monitoring, Modelling and Data Assimilation, which is funded by the German research association, DFG.

Helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript were provided by two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agrosphere (IBG 3), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Katrin Huber, Jan Vanderborght, Mathieu Javaux & Harry Vereecken

  2. Earth and Life Institute/ Environmental Sciences, Université catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Mathieu Javaux

Authors
  1. Katrin Huber
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  2. Jan Vanderborght
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  3. Mathieu Javaux
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  4. Harry Vereecken
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katrin Huber.

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Responsible Editor: Susan Schwinning.

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Huber, K., Vanderborght, J., Javaux, M. et al. Simulating transpiration and leaf water relations in response to heterogeneous soil moisture and different stomatal control mechanisms. Plant Soil 394, 109–126 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2502-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2502-9

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