The leaf transpiration efficiency (A/E, where A is the assimilation rate and E the transpiration rate) is widely used to evaluate plant responses to the environment, yet little attention has been paid to its relationship with vapour pressure deficit (D), the driving force for E. The proposed model is based on the increasingly recognised linear relationship between the ratio of intercellular to ambient CO2 partial pressures (cI/ca) and D. Unlike previous models for A/E, the proposed model does not assume that the leaf and air temperatures are the same or that ci/ca is constant. A/E predicted by the model agreed with that measured for the C3 Encelia farinosa and the C4 Pleuraphis rigida, common species in the north-westem Sonoran Desert, based on gas exchange measured in the field and in environmental chambers. The dependency of cI/ca and A/E on D was additionally evaluated using published data for five other C3 species and two other C4 species. Generally, ci/ca was more sensitive to changes in D for the C4 species than the C3 species. The predictions for A/E by the model were also compared with predictions using a constant ci/ca, either a general cI/ca (0.7 for C3 and 0.3 for C4) or a species-dependent mean cI/ca. Overall, the proposed model performed best for both the C3 and C4 species; using the general cI/ca always resulted in an over-prediction of A/E.
Vapour pressure deficit during growth has little impact on genotypic differences of transpiration efficiency at leaf and whole-plant level: an example fromPopulus nigra L.