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Some Investigations on Water Deficit and Transpiration Under Controlled Conditions

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Water Stress in Plants

Abstract

The transpirational flux of water from soil to atmosphere is perhaps not in itself of direct physiological importance to the plant, but the water deficits which are a necessary concomitant of the transpirational flux have a profound effect on growth and metabolism. It was for this reason that when, some years ago, I was faced with a study of the water relations of the commercial cotton crop in E. Africa, I concentrated on water deficits rather than transpiration rates. A technique was developed for estimating the average water deficit in the leaves of a group (plot) of plants growing in the field. This consisted of punching leaf disks and expressing their water content as a percentage of their water content when fully turgid (relative turgidity). The disks were rendered turgid by floating on water (Weatherley 1950 Barrs 1962 and Weatherley 1962).

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References

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© 1965 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Weatherley, P.E. (1965). Some Investigations on Water Deficit and Transpiration Under Controlled Conditions. In: Slavík, B. (eds) Water Stress in Plants. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3593-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3593-4_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3595-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-3593-4

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