Record Details

Going underground: soil hydraulic properties impacting maize responsiveness to water deficit

OAR@ICRISAT

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/12287/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11104-022-05656-2
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05656-2
 
Title Going underground: soil hydraulic properties impacting maize responsiveness to water deficit
 
Creator Koehler, T
Moser, D S
Botezatu, Á
Murugesan, T
Kaliamoorthy, S
Zarebanadkouki, M
Bienert, M D
Bienert, G P
Carminati, A
Kholová, J
Ahmed, M
 
Subject Soil Science
Maize
Water Resources
 
Description Purpose Although the coordination between stomatal closure and aboveground hydraulics has extensively been studied, our understanding of the impact of belowground hydraulics on stomatal regulation remains incomplete. Here, we investigated whether and how the water use of maize (Zea mays L.) varied under hydraulically contrasting soil textures. Our hypothesis is that a textural-specific drop in the hydraulic conductivity is associated with a distinct decrease in transpiration during soil drying.

Methods Maize plants were grown in contrasting soil textures (sand, sandy loam, loam) and exposed to soil drying. We measured the relationships between transpiration rate, soil water content as well as soil and leaf water potential. We used a soil-plant hydraulic model to reproduce the experimental observations and infer the hydraulic conductance of the soil-plant system during soil drying.

Results We observed the impact of soil texture on plant response to soil drying in various relationships. The soil water potentials at which transpiration decreased were more than one order of magnitude more negative in loam than in sand. The soil-plant conductance decreased not only abruptly but also at less negative soil water potentials in sand than in sandy loam or loam. Stomata closed at less negative leaf water potentials in sand than in loam. The model predictions matched well the experimental observations.

Conclusion The results elucidated that the critical soil water content and potential at which plants close stomata depends on the soil texture. These findings support our plea to include soil properties for understanding and predicting stomatal regulation during soil drying.
 
Publisher Springer
 
Date 2022-08-16
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights cc_attribution
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/12287/1/Plant%20Soil_478_43-58_2022.pdf
Koehler, T and Moser, D S and Botezatu, Á and Murugesan, T and Kaliamoorthy, S and Zarebanadkouki, M and Bienert, M D and Bienert, G P and Carminati, A and Kholová, J and Ahmed, M (2022) Going underground: soil hydraulic properties impacting maize responsiveness to water deficit. Plant and Soil, 478. pp. 43-58. ISSN 1573-5036