Heat and water exchange at plant surfaces

Abstract

A knowledge of the resistances to diffusion, as discussed in the previous chapter, may be applied to answer some important questions about the water and heat relations of plants:

• 1. How does the temperature of leaves, buds or stems depend on atmospheric and plant variables?

• 2. How much water does a plant use in a specified environment and how does this depend on changes in (a) atmospheric variables and (b) the physiological state of the plant?

For where-e’er the sun does shine, And where-e’er the rain does fall, Babe can never hunger there, Nor poverty the mind appall.

William Blake