The Impacts of Changing Temperature on Plant Water Use
Abstract
The movement of water through a plant’s parts, out its stomata, and into the atmosphere begins with moisture available in the soil. Soil water availability is determined by rates of evaporation from the Earth’s surface, which increases with temperature. Alteration of water content determines the soil’s water potential, the tendency of water to move from one area to another due to physical pressure forces. The means by which plants utilize and transport water occurs along a water potential gradient in a soil-plant-atmosphere-continuum. Water eventually exits the plant via transpiration when the leaves’ stomata open to release vapor and receive carbon dioxide. Water availability is critical for plants’ physiological processes and is determined by a mixture of environmental abiotic factors. Thus, the plots in the Reciprocal Transplant Experiment have been moved to different sites along the Washington Gulch elevation gradient to experience different warming or cooling temperatures. Water potential patterns are mainly studied in woody plant species and the water potential of herbaceous species is heavily understudied. My observational study focused on five different herbaceous species at these turf sites. At each site and their experimental treatment plots, I recorded weather observations, measured the soil moisture of the turfs, and water potential of the individual plants. At the intermediate site that had both cooled and warmed plots, I measured leaf gas exchange for the plant individuals which accounts for their stomatal conductance rates. I hypothesized that plants do not have an acclimated response and rather, as warming temperatures increase, soil becomes drier which leads to more negative water potential values and lower transpiration rates: the inverse for cooling temperatures. Results found that, although water potential did vary along the elevation gradient in the hypothesized way, soil moisture was highest at the lowest elevation site and lowest at the highest site. Moreover, along the warming and cooling treatments, there was no significant difference in plant water stress: there was no significant difference in stomatal conductance either. These outcomes suggest inter-annual variability in water availability, the plants have an ability to converge with their surroundings, and a complex model that accounts for climatic conditions should occur in the future.
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