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Water in the Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum

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Physiological Plant Ecology II

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology ((920,volume 12 / B))

Abstract

When higher plants assimilate carbon dioxide they inevitably lose water. Evolution has provided these plants with facilities both to control and to make good this loss, so as to maintain adequate hydration of their tissues. The development of roots and a vascular system enabled plants to invade the land by ensuring a supply of water to their shoots; the development of a cuticle punctured with stomata enabled them to conserve water when the supply from their roots was outstripped by the evaporative demand.

“Assimilation of carbon dioxide is the sine qua non of competitive success in green plants. All other aspects of physiological functioning are ancillary to it. Even the production of seed may be thought of as a strategy to establish new centres of carbon fixation and, in that general sense, the associated metabolic cost is no different in kind from that expended, say, by a tree in maintaining its foliage in the sun” (Cowan 1978).

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Authors
  1. J. B. Passioura
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrstuhl für Botanik II der Universität Würzburg, Mittlerer Dallenbergweg 64, 8700, Würzburg, Germany

    O. L. Lange

  2. Department of Biology, Division of Environmental Biology of the Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    P. S. Nobel

  3. Department of Environmental Biology, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Box 475, Canberra City, 2601, Australia

    C. B. Osmond

  4. Institut für Botanik und Mikrobiologie der Technischen Universität München, Arcisstraße 21, 8000, München 2, Germany

    H. Ziegler

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Passioura, J.B. (1982). Water in the Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum. In: Lange, O.L., Nobel, P.S., Osmond, C.B., Ziegler, H. (eds) Physiological Plant Ecology II. Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, vol 12 / B. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68150-9_2

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