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Adaptations that Reduce Water Loss

Adaptations that Reduce Water Loss

Though evaporation from plant leaves drives transpiration, it also results in loss of water. Because water is critical for photosynthetic reactions and other cellular processes, evolutionary pressures on plants in different environments have driven the acquisition of adaptations that reduce water loss.

Responses to Drought and Flooding

Responses to Drought and Flooding

Water plays a significant role in the life cycle of plants. However, insufficient or excess of water can be detrimental and pose a serious threat to plants.

Light Acquisition

Light Acquisition

In order to produce glucose, plants need to capture sufficient light energy. Many modern plants have evolved leaves specialized for light acquisition. Leaves can be only millimeters in width or tens of meters wide, depending on the environment. Due to competition for sunlight, evolution has driven the evolution of increasingly larger leaves and taller plants, to avoid shading by their neighbors with contaminant elaboration of root architecture and mechanisms to transport water and nutrients.

Regulation of Transpiration by Stomata

Regulation of Transpiration by Stomata

During photosynthesis, plants acquire the necessary carbon dioxide and release the produced oxygen back into the atmosphere. Openings in the epidermis of plant leaves is the site of this exchange of gasses. A single opening is called a stoma—derived from the Greek word for “mouth.” Stomata open and close in response to a variety of environmental cues.

Xylem and Transpiration-driven Transport of Resources

Xylem and Transpiration-driven Transport of Resources

The xylem of vascular plants distributes water and dissolved minerals that are taken up by the roots to the rest of the plant. The cells that transport xylem sap are dead upon maturity, and the movement of xylem sap is a passive process.

Regulation of Water Output

Regulation of Water Output

The human body predominantly expels water through the urinary system. On average, an individual generates around 1.5 liters of urine each day. This amount can fluctuate based on how well a person is hydrated, but a critical minimum quantity of urine must be produced to ensure the body's proper functioning. Daily, the kidneys remove 600 to 1200 milliosmoles of dissolved substances, effectively excreting excess minerals and water-soluble toxins such as creatinine, urea, and uric acid from the...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 28, 2026

Measurement of Leaf Hydraulic Conductance and Stomatal Conductance and Their Responses to Irradiance and Dehydration Using the Evaporative Flux Method EFM

Measurement of Leaf Hydraulic Conductance and Stomatal Conductance and Their Responses to Irradiance and Dehydration Using the Evaporative Flux Method EFM

Published on: December 31, 2012

Wind increases leaf water use efficiency.

Stanislaus J Schymanski¹, Dani Or¹

¹Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8092, Switzerland.

Plant, Cell & Environment

|December 31, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Contrary to popular belief, higher wind speeds boost plant carbon dioxide uptake and water use efficiency (WUE). Decreasing global wind speeds may have significantly lowered plant WUE, impacting water conservation in photosynthesis.

Keywords:

gas exchange global stilling leaf energy balance leaf temperature water use efficiency wind speed

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Measurement of Leaf Hydraulic Conductance and Stomatal Conductance and Their Responses to Irradiance and Dehydration Using the Evaporative Flux Method EFM

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Published on: December 31, 2012

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Area of Science:

Plant physiology
Environmental science
Ecology

Background:

Widespread perception: increasing wind speed increases plant transpiration.
Counter-evidence: wind enhances CO2 uptake and reduces transpiration via convective cooling.
Leaf water use efficiency (WUE) is critical for plant water conservation.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide theoretical and experimental evidence on the relationship between wind speed and leaf gas exchange.
To assess the impact of global wind speed trends on plant water use efficiency.
To investigate the interplay between wind, leaf size, and water use efficiency.

Main Methods:

Leaf-scale theoretical analysis.
Experimental evidence collection.
Analysis of global near-surface wind speed trends.
Examination of leaf size trends.

Main Results:

Increasing wind speed enhances carbon dioxide uptake and improves water use efficiency (WUE).
Global decrease in near-surface wind speeds may have significantly reduced plant WUE.
Observed WUE reduction due to wind speed decline is comparable to WUE increase from rising CO2.
Concurrent reduction in mean leaf sizes might compensate for wind speed effects on gas exchange.

Conclusions:

Plant water use efficiency generally increases with wind speed.
Declining global wind speeds pose a significant challenge to plant water conservation.
Unintuitive feedbacks between wind, leaf size, and WUE necessitate re-evaluation of wind's role in plant water relations.
Temporal and geographic trends in leaf sizes may require re-interpretation in light of these findings.