Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

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.

Water and Mineral Acquisition

Water and Mineral Acquisition

Specialized tissues in plant roots have evolved to capture water, minerals, and some ions from the soil. Roots exhibit a variety of branching patterns that facilitate this process. The outermost root cells have specialized structures called root hairs that increase the root surface, thus increasing soil contact. Water can passively cross into roots, as the concentration of water in the soil is higher than that of the root tissue. Minerals, in contrast, are actively transported into root cells.

Tonicity in Plants

Tonicity in Plants

Plant cells maintain appropriate osmotic balance in extreme conditions. For instance, plants in dry environments store water in vacuoles, limit the opening of their stoma, and have thick, waxy cuticles to prevent unnecessary water loss. Some species of plants that live in salty environments store salt in their roots. As a result, water osmosis occurs in the root from the surrounding soil.
Tonicity
Tonicity describes the capacity of a cell to lose or gain water depending on the solute...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Assessing plant water status: Part 2 - Non-destructive and remote sensing approaches.

Journal of the science of food and agriculture·2026

Same author

Minimally invasive quantitative tracking of minerals, sugars, amino acids, and hormones in the leaf apoplast of Arabidopsis thaliana and Vicia faba.

Journal of experimental botany·2026

Same author

Apoplastic pH modulates gene expression, proteome, and ABA content in Vicia faba guard cells, accompanied by reduced stomatal aperture under salt stress.

Journal of experimental botany·2026

Same author

Cadmium modulates tomato root architecture and root hair responses to ABA-metabolising rhizobacteria.

Physiology and molecular biology of plants : an international journal of functional plant biology·2026

Same author

Sustainable Greenhouse Tomato Production: Benefits of Inoculation With Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Under Low Nitrogen and Phosphorus Conditions.

Plant-environment interactions (Hoboken, N.J.)·2025

Same author

Ultraviolet B radiation improves salt-induced responses in the facultative halophyte Chenopodium quinoa.

Plant physiology·2025

Same journal

Spatiotemporal self-attention network ST-GranNet for granary temperature prediction.

Journal of the science of food and agriculture·2026

Same journal

Responses of soybean growth and rhizosphere microbiota to combined microbial fertilizer in saline-alkali soil.

Journal of the science of food and agriculture·2026

Same journal

Roasting enhances antioxidant, anti-glycation, and gut microbiota-modulating activities of burdock root tea in mice fed a high-sucrose, low-fibre diet.

Journal of the science of food and agriculture·2026

Same journal

Engineering and application of a recombinant Aspergillus niger CECT 2907 tannase to enhance the antioxidant activity of black tea.

Journal of the science of food and agriculture·2026

Same journal

Effect of the addition of yacon flour (Smallanthus sonchifolius) and freezing on baking performance.

Journal of the science of food and agriculture·2026

Same journal

Impact of varied oral processing on starch hydrolysis, bolus properties, and sensory texture attributes of mashed potatoes.

Journal of the science of food and agriculture·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Measurements of Soil Water Potential and Conductivity based on a Simple Evaporation Experiment using a Hydraulic Property Analyzer

Measurements of Soil Water Potential and Conductivity based on a Simple Evaporation Experiment using a Hydraulic Property Analyzer

Published on: August 9, 2024

Assessing plant water status: Part 1 - Classical methods.

Naila Farooq¹, Tasawer Abbas², Bo Zhang³

¹Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan.

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

|June 24, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Accurate plant water status measurement is vital for crop production under climate change. This review details destructive methods like gravimetric, Scholander pressure chamber, and psychrometric techniques for reliable plant water status assessment.

Keywords:

classic destructive methods irrigation scheduling lead RWC leaf hydration leaf water content plant water status

More Related Videos

A Telemetric, Gravimetric Platform for Real-Time Physiological Phenotyping of Plant–Environment Interactions

A Telemetric, Gravimetric Platform for Real-Time Physiological Phenotyping of Plant–Environment Interactions

Published on: August 5, 2020

The Calibration and Use of Capacitance Sensors to Monitor Stem Water Content in Trees

The Calibration and Use of Capacitance Sensors to Monitor Stem Water Content in Trees

Published on: December 27, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Measurements of Soil Water Potential and Conductivity based on a Simple Evaporation Experiment using a Hydraulic Property Analyzer

Measurements of Soil Water Potential and Conductivity based on a Simple Evaporation Experiment using a Hydraulic Property Analyzer

Published on: August 9, 2024

A Telemetric, Gravimetric Platform for Real-Time Physiological Phenotyping of Plant–Environment Interactions

A Telemetric, Gravimetric Platform for Real-Time Physiological Phenotyping of Plant–Environment Interactions

Published on: August 5, 2020

The Calibration and Use of Capacitance Sensors to Monitor Stem Water Content in Trees

The Calibration and Use of Capacitance Sensors to Monitor Stem Water Content in Trees

Published on: December 27, 2017

Area of Science:

Agricultural Science
Plant Physiology
Environmental Science

Background:

Climate change exacerbates water scarcity, threatening crop and pasture production.
Soil water content is an unreliable indicator of plant water status due to limited resolution and weak correlation.
Accurate plant water status is crucial for understanding nutrient uptake, thermal regulation, and stomatal behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

To review classical, destructive methods for measuring plant water status.
To highlight the importance of leaf water content as a proxy for plant water status.
To establish a foundation for validating non-destructive methods.

Main Methods:

Gravimetric techniques for measuring water content.
Scholander pressure chamber for determining water potential.
Psychrometric techniques for assessing leaf water potential and turgor.

Main Results:

Classical methods provide direct, physically interpretable measurements of water content, potential, and turgor.
These destructive techniques are essential for calibrating and validating modern non-destructive approaches.
Leaf water content and relative water content serve as reliable proxies for plant water status.

Conclusions:

Destructive methods are foundational for accurate plant water status assessment.
Integrating these measurements with soil moisture data optimizes irrigation management and crop resilience.
Reliable plant water status assessment is key to adapting agriculture to climate variability.