Differences between two grain sorghum genotypes in adaptation to drought stress. II. Root water uptake and water use

1983 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 627 ◽  
Author(s):  
GC Wright ◽  
RCG Smith

A study of two sorghum hybrids, E-57 and TX-671, indicated that differences in grain yield under conditions of low rainfall were associated with increased extraction of soil water at depth. E-57 used less water before anthesis than did TX-671, which was more than compensated for by increased water use after anthesis. As soil water declined in a drying cycle, TX-671 tended to restrict its water use at a higher water content than E-57. The implication of these results is discussed.

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fairouz Slama ◽  
Nessrine Zemni ◽  
Fethi Bouksila ◽  
Roberto De Mascellis ◽  
Rachida Bouhlila

Water scarcity and quality degradation represent real threats to economic, social, and environmental development of arid and semi-arid regions. Drip irrigation associated to Deficit Irrigation (DI) has been investigated as a water saving technique. Yet its environmental impacts on soil and groundwater need to be gone into in depth especially when using brackish irrigation water. Soil water content and salinity were monitored in a fully drip irrigated potato plot with brackish water (4.45 dSm−1) in semi-arid Tunisia. The HYDRUS-1D model was used to investigate the effects of different irrigation regimes (deficit irrigation (T1R, 70% ETc), full irrigation (T2R, 100% ETc), and farmer’s schedule (T3R, 237% ETc) on root water uptake, root zone salinity, and solute return flows to groundwater. The simulated values of soil water content (θ) and electrical conductivity of soil solution (ECsw) were in good agreement with the observation values, as indicated by mean RMSE values (≤0.008 m3·m−3, and ≤0.28 dSm−1 for soil water content and ECsw respectively). The results of the different simulation treatments showed that relative yield accounted for 54%, 70%, and 85.5% of the potential maximal value when both water and solute stress were considered for deficit, full. and farmer’s irrigation, respectively. Root zone salinity was the lowest and root water uptake was the same with and without solute stress for the treatment corresponding to the farmer’s irrigation schedule (273% ETc). Solute return flows reaching the groundwater were the highest for T3R after two subsequent rainfall seasons. Beyond the water efficiency of DI with brackish water, long term studies need to focus on its impact on soil and groundwater salinization risks under changing climate conditions.


2003 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Hupet ◽  
S. Lambot ◽  
R. A. Feddes ◽  
J. C. van Dam ◽  
M. Vanclooster

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zdzislaw Attila Tátrai ◽  
Rabab Sanoubar ◽  
Zsuzsanna Pluhár ◽  
Silvia Mancarella ◽  
Francesco Orsini ◽  
...  

Water availability is considered as a determinant factor that affects plant growth. The commercial medicinal values of an aromatic plant rely on the presence of secondary metabolites that are affected under water shortage. Two-year-oldThymus citriodorusplants were subjected to different polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) levels (0, 2%, and 4%) under greenhouse condition. PEG treatment lasted for 15 days. Thyme plant showed a morphological drought avoidance mechanism by maintaining the root system development through shoot fresh weight reduction resulting in promoted root absorption capacity and sustained plant growth. Moreover, stressed plants were able to maintain water use efficiency and root : shoot ratio suggesting a strong relation between root water uptake and water use saving strategies. Furthermore, thyme plants reduced tissue dehydration through stomatal closure and improved root water uptake. Content of volatile oil constituents of geraniol and diisobutyl phthalate increased upon drought stress while pseudophytol was reduced. Unexpectedly, thymol was not reported as a main oil element under either control or mild stress condition, while it was increased upon high drought stress in measure of 4.4%. Finally, carvacrol significantly accumulated under high drought stress (+31.7%) as compared to control plants.


2002 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 36-1-36-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Hupet ◽  
S. Lambot ◽  
M. Javaux ◽  
M. Vanclooster

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 409-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Guderle ◽  
A. Hildebrandt

Abstract. Understanding the role of plants in soil water relations, and thus ecosystem functioning, requires information about root water uptake. We evaluated four different complex water balance methods to estimate sink term patterns and evapotranspiration directly from soil moisture measurements. We tested four methods. The first two take the difference between two measurement intervals as evapotranspiration, thus neglecting vertical flow. The third uses regression on the soil water content time series and differences between day and night to account for vertical flow. The fourth accounts for vertical flow using a numerical model and iteratively solves for the sink term. None of these methods requires any a priori information of root distribution parameters or evapotranspiration, which is an advantage compared to common root water uptake models. To test the methods, a synthetic experiment with numerical simulations for a grassland ecosystem was conducted. Additionally, the time series were perturbed to simulate common sensor errors, like those due to measurement precision and inaccurate sensor calibration. We tested each method for a range of measurement frequencies and applied performance criteria to evaluate the suitability of each method. In general, we show that methods accounting for vertical flow predict evapotranspiration and the sink term distribution more accurately than the simpler approaches. Under consideration of possible measurement uncertainties, the method based on regression and differentiating between day and night cycles leads to the best and most robust estimation of sink term patterns. It is thus an alternative to more complex inverse numerical methods. This study demonstrates that highly resolved (temporally and spatially) soil water content measurements may be used to estimate the sink term profiles when the appropriate approach is used.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 4943-4969
Author(s):  
Thuy Huu Nguyen ◽  
Matthias Langensiepen ◽  
Jan Vanderborght ◽  
Hubert Hüging ◽  
Cho Miltin Mboh ◽  
...  

Abstract. Stomatal regulation and whole plant hydraulic signaling affect water fluxes and stress in plants. Land surface models and crop models use a coupled photosynthesis–stomatal conductance modeling approach. Those models estimate the effect of soil water stress on stomatal conductance directly from soil water content or soil hydraulic potential without explicit representation of hydraulic signals between the soil and stomata. In order to explicitly represent stomatal regulation by soil water status as a function of the hydraulic signal and its relation to the whole plant hydraulic conductance, we coupled the crop model LINTULCC2 and the root growth model SLIMROOT with Couvreur's root water uptake model (RWU) and the HILLFLOW soil water balance model. Since plant hydraulic conductance depends on the plant development, this model coupling represents a two-way coupling between growth and plant hydraulics. To evaluate the advantage of considering plant hydraulic conductance and hydraulic signaling, we compared the performance of this newly coupled model with another commonly used approach that relates root water uptake and plant stress directly to the root zone water hydraulic potential (HILLFLOW with Feddes' RWU model). Simulations were compared with gas flux measurements and crop growth data from a wheat crop grown under three water supply regimes (sheltered, rainfed, and irrigated) and two soil types (stony and silty) in western Germany in 2016. The two models showed a relatively similar performance in the simulation of dry matter, leaf area index (LAI), root growth, RWU, gross assimilation rate, and soil water content. The Feddes model predicts more stress and less growth in the silty soil than in the stony soil, which is opposite to the observed growth. The Couvreur model better represents the difference in growth between the two soils and the different treatments. The newly coupled model (HILLFLOW–Couvreur's RWU–SLIMROOT–LINTULCC2) was also able to simulate the dynamics and magnitude of whole plant hydraulic conductance over the growing season. This demonstrates the importance of two-way feedbacks between growth and root water uptake for predicting the crop response to different soil water conditions in different soils. Our results suggest that a better representation of the effects of soil characteristics on root growth is needed for reliable estimations of root hydraulic conductance and gas fluxes, particularly in heterogeneous fields. The newly coupled soil–plant model marks a promising approach but requires further testing for other scenarios regarding crops, soil, and climate.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Mary ◽  
Luca Peruzzo ◽  
Jacopo Boaga ◽  
Nicola Cenni ◽  
Myriam Schmutz ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper presents a time-lapse application of electrical methods (Electrical Resistivity Tomography – ERT – and Mise-à-la-Masse – MALM) for monitoring plant roots and their activity (root water uptake) during a controlled infiltration experiment. The use of non-invasive geophysical monitoring is of increasing interest as these techniques provide time-lapse imaging of processes that otherwise can only be measured at few specific spatial locations. The experiment here described was conducted in a vineyard in Bordeaux (France) and was focused on the behaviour of two neighbouring grapevines. The joint application of ERT and MALM has several advantages. While ERT in time-lapse mode is sensitive to changes in soil electrical resistivity and thus to the factors controlling it (mainly soil water content, in this context), MALM uses DC current injected in a tree stem to image where the plant-root system is in effective electrical contact with the soil at locations that are likely to be the same where root water uptake (RWU) takes place. Thus ERT and MALM provide complementary information about the root structure and activity. The experiment shows that the region of likely electrical current sources produced by MALM does not change significantly during the infiltration study time in spite of the strong changes of electrical resistivity caused by changes in soil water content. This fact, together with the evidence that current injection in the soil produces totally different patterns, corroborates the idea that this application of MALM highlights the active root density in the soil. When considering the electrical resistivity changes (as measured by ERT) inside the stationary volume of active roots delineated by MALM, the overall tendency is towards a resistivity increase, which can be linked to a decrease in soil water content caused by root water uptake. On the contrary, when considering the soil volume outside the MALM-derived root water uptake region, the electrical resistivity tends to decrease as an effect of soil water content increase caused by the infiltration. The results are particularly promising, and the method can be applied to a variety of scales including the laboratory scale where direct evidence of roots structure and root water uptake can help corroborate the approach. Once fully validated, the joint use of MALM and ERT can be used as a valuable tool to study the activity of roots under a wide variety of field conditions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 10859-10902 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Guderle ◽  
A. Hildebrandt

Abstract. Understanding the role of plants for soil water relations, and thus for ecosystem functioning, requires information about root water uptake. We evaluated four different complex water balance methods to estimate sink term patterns and evapotranspiration directly from soil moisture measurements. We tested four methods: the first two take the difference between two measurement intervals as evapotranspiration, thus neglecting vertical flow. The third uses regression on the soil water content time series and differences between day and night to account for vertical flow. The fourth accounts for vertical flow using a numerical model and iteratively solves for the sink term. Neither of those methods requires any a priori information of root distribution parameters or evapotranspiration, which is the advantage, compared to common root water uptake models. To test the methods, a synthetic experiment with numerical simulations for a grassland ecosystem was conducted. Additionally, the time series were perturbed to simulate common sensor errors, like those due to measurement precision and inaccurate sensor calibration. We tested each method for a range of measurement frequencies and applied performance criteria to evaluate the suitability of each method. In general, we show that methods accounting for vertical flow predict evapotranspiration and the sink term distribution more accurately than the simpler approaches. Under consideration of possible measurement uncertainties, the method based on regression and differentiating between day and night cycles leads to the best and most robust estimation of sink term patterns. It is thus an alternative to more complex inverse numerical methods. This study demonstrates that highly resolved (temporal and spatial) soil water content measurements may be used to estimate the sink term profiles when the appropriate approach is used.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Couvreur ◽  
Youri Rothfuss ◽  
Félicien Meunier ◽  
Thierry Bariac ◽  
Philippe Biron ◽  
...  

Abstract. Isotopic labeling techniques have the potential to minimize the uncertainty of plant root water uptake (RWU) profiles estimated through multi-source (statistical) modeling, by artificially enhancing soil water isotopic gradient. Furthermore, physical models can account for hydrodynamic constraints to RWU if simultaneous soil and plant water status data is available. In this study, a population of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacae cv Soni) was grown in a macro-rhizotron setup under semi-controlled conditions to monitor such variables for a 34-hours long period following the oxygen stable isotopic (18O) labeling of deep soil water. Aboveground variables included tiller and leaf water oxygen isotopic compositions as well as leaf water potential (ψleaf), relative humidity, and transpiration rate. Belowground profiles of root length density (RLD), soil water content and isotopic composition were also sampled. While there were strong correlations between hydraulic variables as well as between isotopic variables, the experimental results underlined the discrepancy between variations of hydraulic and isotopic variables. In order to dissect the problem, we reproduced both types of observations with a one-dimensional physical model of water flow in the soil-plant domain, for 60 different realistic RLD profiles. While simulated ψleaf followed clear temporal variations with little differences across plants as if they were “on board of the same rollercoaster”, simulated δtiller values within the plant population were rather heterogeneous (“swarm-like”) with relatively little temporal variation and a strong sensitivity to rooting depth. The physical model thus suggested that the discrepancy between isotopic and hydraulic observations was logical, as the variability captured by the former was spatial and may not correlate with the temporal dynamics of the latter. For comparison purposes a Bayesian statistical model was also used to simulate RWU. While they predicted relatively similar cumulative RWU profiles, the physical model could differentiate spatial from temporal dynamics of the isotopic signature, and supported that the local increase of soil water content and formation of a peak of labelled water observed overnight were due to hydraulic lift.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thuy Huu Nguyen ◽  
Matthias Langensiepen ◽  
Jan Vanderborght ◽  
Hubert Hüging ◽  
Cho Miltin Mboh ◽  
...  

Abstract. Stomatal regulation and whole plant hydraulic signaling affect water fluxes and stress in plants. Land surface models and crop models use a coupled photosynthesis–stomatal conductance modelling approach and estimate the effect of soil water stress on stomatal conductance directly from soil water content or matrix potential without explicit representation of hydraulic signals between the soil and stomata. In order to explicitly represent stomatal regulation by soil water status as a function of the hydraulic signal and its relation to the whole plant hydraulic conductance, we coupled the crop model LINTULCC2 and the root growth model SLIMROOT with Couvreur's root water uptake model (RWU), and the HILLFLOW soil water balance model. Since plant hydraulic conductance depends on the plant development, this model coupling represents a two-way coupling between growth and plant hydraulics. To evaluate the advantage of considering plant hydraulic conductance and hydraulic signaling, we compared the performance of this newly coupled model with another commonly used approach that relates root water uptake and plant stress directly to the root zone water potential (HILLFLOW with Feddes' RWU model). Simulations were compared with gas flux measurements and crop growth data from a wheat crop grown under three water supply regimes (sheltered, rain-fed and irrigated) and two soil types (stony and silty) in Western Germany in 2016. The two models showed a relatively similar performance in simulation of dry matter, LAI, root growth, RWU, gross assimilation rate, and soil water content. The Feddes model predicts more stress and less growth in the silty soil than in the stony soil, which is opposite to the observed growth. The Couvreur model better represents the difference in growth between the two soils and the different treatments. The newly coupled model (LINTULCC2 – SLIMROOT – Couvreur – HILLFLOW) was also able to simulate the dynamics and magnitude of whole plant hydraulic conductance over the growing season. This demonstrates the importance of two-way feedbacks between growth and root water uptake for predicting the crop response to different soil water conditions in different soils. Our results suggest that a better representation of the effects of soil characteristics on root growth is needed for reliable estimations of root hydraulic conductance and gas fluxes, particularly in heterogeneous fields. The newly coupled soil–plant model marks a promissing approach but requires further testing for other scenarios regarding crop, soil, and climate.


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